Tainted Memories
by estrela jem
Summary: The gang find themselves, yet again in a new world, one that is steeped in war and where Fai is forced to think again about his past. FaiOC
1. Chapter 1

**NOTE**: Okay so I know it's been a while, if you want to know exactly what been going on go to my prophile. I just want all of you to know who are going to get the e-mail saying this "new" chapter has been uploaded that this is the exact same chapter except with better grammer hopefully. I'll be reposting the rest of the chapters up but nothing will be different from what are up now so just ignore them (unless you want to read them again). If you want to know why the hell I'm redoing these ones and not working on the next go to my prophile. (Wow, that made me sound really bossy didn't it - sorry guys, didn't mean to.) To all of you that are reading this for the first time, hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles ... I unfortunately never will ...

**Tainted Memories**

**Chapter one: **

"Mokona Modoki really can't wait! Paaapooooooooo!" The little white creature said, glowing a bright yellow akin to that of a sun. It spouted white feathery wings as it prepared to send the small group of travelers to the next world, searching for princess Sakura's feathers, containing her memories.

"That was a lot of fun!" Fai, the mage of the group said with a big smile on his face. As each member of the group said there goodbyes to there new found friends, friends who they had previously met in other worlds, only resembling them in appearance and soul, having met, and yet, never met.

"Thank you very much everyone, we'll all meet again one day!" Tomoyo said, watching from outside of the multicoloured lights that engulfed the traveling companions in a sphere. One could see Kurogane, the samurai of the group, look towards Tomoyo, reminded of the world he wanted so badly to go back to. He didn't have much time for thought though as Mokona continued. Sakura and Syaoran looked at each other briefly before looking at Mokona, seeing that it was time to depart.

"Paaaan," Mokona said as each member of the group was transported to the next world.

The group found themselves in something like an inter-dimensional road, one lined with circular rings made of dotted light. It seemed as if they were moving and yet not moving, floating, not being able to tell up from down. They depended on sense, telling them that what was below them was down and what was above them was up, but, then again, could they really be sure?

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Emiri was at her wits end. The council had spent weeks trying to figure out how to cope with the wars. It was their responsibility, being the only ones who even had a chance, if small, against the monstrous power slowly taking control of their world. She felt like pulling out her hair but knew doing so here, or showing any type of emotion, would show weakness, something she was not willing to do.

"We must find a way to stop him, this cannot go on any longer," one said, a person of unknown sex wearing a green cloak made of cotton with the hood up, as all did. He was sitting at one place in an enormous rectangular table with a projection in the middle coming from nowhere, showing battles that have previously occurred and their aftermaths.

"Of course this must stop, is that not what everyone here thinks? Stop repeating what each of us has known for two years and only speak if you have something new to bring to attention," another spoke, close to yelling. This time it was a person wearing a light blue cloak made of silk. "We must think of something! The world will soon be destroyed! We must stop Sarkove and destroy him!" Everyone nodded in agreement. The tension was high. They had spent so much energy and so many had died within the two years that _he _had shown up.

"One of us should go and gather information. There is nothing we can do know with the knowledge we know at this point. Only one person should go so as not to draw too much attention," another person wearing a brown coat made of rough material said.

"It is the best course of action to take, though the person to do this must be experienced and able to use as little magic as possible, it is rumoured that the enemy can detect the emission of energy from a spell," the person in the light blue cloak said.

"It is agreed upon then?" the person at the head of the table, wearing a pure white cloak that glimmered gold and had silver veins running throughout the material of indecipherable nature, only seen at the right perspective. With the comment, everyone agreed nodding their covered heads. "Then it is done," the leader said looking over everyone from the head of the table. "The only thing is to decide who is going to go."

Emiri quietly sighed, _this isn't good, _she thought.

* * *

A/N

Heya it's me again. Ok I am now going to try yet again at a story. This time I have actually written down exactly what I want, at least the main gist of it and hopefully, with the support of you guys, I'll actually be able to finish it! . I really hope so. Anyway I know this chapter was really short but I just wanted to start it with a small prologue just introducing some characters without giving anything away yet. This will be the only chapter this short, that I can promise, me not necessarily being a fan of shorter chapters. So please review, it makes me work harder and write faster!

Thanks a lot!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Tsubasa Chronicles ... Unfortunately.

**Tainted Memories**

Chapter 2:

"Ooooph," each member of the group grunted, right after they had landed in the next world. Of course Mokona, being Mokona, couldn't control where, or how, to land and therefore the team found themselves in a most unusual position. Kurogane was at the bottom of heap, sprawled out with his head shoved into the ground by some unknown force.

"Get … off … now," Kurogane said, taking long, deep breaths after each word to try and calm his quickly forming temper. Unfortunately, Kurogane found his head being sat on by Fai, who, just for the sake of annoying him, wouldn't get off.

"Awww, but this is just so comfy Kuro-pin!" Fai spoke out with a smile reaching from ear to ear, just loving to tease him to no end. Sakura ended up falling onto Syaoran in a very suggestive position. She was sprawled completely on top of him.

"Sakura, are you alright," Syaoran asked, always putting the princess' safety first.

"Yes, I'm ok," the princess spoke; it seemed that they didn't realize the position they were in.

"Hyuuuuuuu!" Fai whistled, at least, the best he could produce of a whistle. He had been forcefully pried off of Kurogane who was still fuming a meter away. "Should Kurogane and myself give you two some space?" Fai asked, noticing Sakura and Syaoran's position.

Once the two realized why Fai was acting the way he was, they immediately blushed a heavy shade of red and both scrambled away from each other. They did a ninety degree turn and wouldn't look at each other. Fai just smiled.

"Where are we?" Kurogane asked, being the first to take notice of their surroundings. They had arrived in an open meadow laid with hundreds of flowers in full bloom. There were gently rolling hills, along the plain and to their left, a forest that went on for an eternity.

"So beautiful," Sakura breathed, admiring the beauty of the world.

"Mekyo," Mokona stated, seeming to be more energetic. "Mokona senses something powerful," the little white creature said.

"Is it one of Sakura's feathers?" Syaoran asked.

"I don't know," Mokona replied, "it seems to have the same feeling as Sakura's feather but different, Mokona doesn't know how to explain."

"We might as well check it out, nothing else to do," Kurogane said, already walking off into the distance.

"Kuro-pin, wait up!" Fai yelled running up to him. "Why are you in such a hurry? Look around! We should just sit and enjoy ourselves for a little while, besides, do you even know which way you're going?" Fai said, poking Kurogane's cheek with his pointer finger. Kurogane had a vein popping out on his forehead and, soon enough, started chasing Fai around the clearing yelling obscenities. His sword was out and Fai was running around Syaoran and Sakura, arms flailing. Sakura and Syaoran just watched in amusement. Syaoran finally broke out of his reverie and thought it was time to move on.

"Lets go find a village and then we can rest their for a little while, that way Kurogane can start moving and Fai can have his rest," stated Syaoran which got both the mage and samurai to stop.

"Ah, what a great idea Syaoran," Fai said, hands supporting his head. Kurogane just grunted. "Only problem now is which way to go."

"Let's go that way," Sakura spoke up, pointing towards a path that lead towards the forest.

"Do you sense one of your feathers princess?" Syaoran asked.

"No, but it looks very pretty." Everyone sweat dropped.

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A person was standing on a cliff overseeing a small town that had just recently been burned to the ground. The person was wearing a white cloak and held a silver staff encrusted with sapphires along one side with a jewel that floated in a cage of vines that twisted and turned and glimmered in the sunlight. The hood of the cloak was up making it impossible to tell if the person was male or female. The person slowly started their decline down a steep slope leading off the cliff and down towards the village. As the stranger went down, the back of the cloak blew in the breeze and you could see thin, light blue veins that glimmered for a few seconds before disappearing.

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Deciding to take Sakura's advice at the direction to travel, since they didn't have any other ideas, the group found themselves walking along a forest path laid with almost circular stones. There were little pieces of grass and a few flowers that had found a home in the crevices in the stones. The path was surrounded by small bushes which lead further into tall tress that acted like a canopy, shielding travelers from the harsh sunlight of the day. They found it very refreshing, walking along the path in silence, listening to the soft chirp of the birds and the occasional scratching of a squirrel climbing up a tree.

"It's so peaceful here," Sakura commented, hands behind her back looking up into what she could see of the clear blue sky. Her voice seemed to punctuate the silence that the group had not previously taken notice of, all lost in their own thoughts. Now that Sakura had broken it, the silence they felt this time seemed different, as if a child was waiting to see if he had been caught after breaking something of value. It now seemed ominous. Kurogane was the first to comment.

"Something doesn't feel right."

Syaoran unconsciously stepped closer to Sakura, as was his protective nature. Fai had taken on a serious expression, he had felt magic being used somewhere close to were they were.

"Someone is using magic, it's different though. I can't really explain it," Fai said, looking in the direction he felt the magic being used. "Mokona, do you sense Sakura's feather?" Fai asked the white dumpling.

"Mokona senses a lot of things; Mokona can't be sure whether it's Sakura's feather or something else. This world has a lot of strange powers," Mokona said, little hand touching his chin in deep thought, the other holding the elbow, ears pulled down.

"Well then, we should at least go check it out, just incase," Syaoran said. If there was even a chance of Sakura's feather in that direction he had to try. The group continued their journey along the path, walking at a faster pace than before.

"That's odd," Fai commented after a few minutes.

"What is?" Sakura asked.

"It stopped," he replied. This world was giving him a funny feeling, one that he was positive he didn't like. Something seemed to be pulling at his memory, just out of reach, as if he had been here before but was unable to remember. Something was unsettling about this world, in Fai's opinion; the faster they got that feather and got out of this world the better.

"What stopped?" Syaoran asked.

"I can't feel anything from that direction anymore," Mokona said, sounding disappointed. He climbed onto Fai's shoulder. "What's wrong Fai, you seem down," Mokona said, looking over Fai's shoulder to get a better look at his face.

"It's nothing," Fai said, continuing along the path, the rest jogging to catch up. Fai still had a serious face on, something that was unsettling to the rest of the group, always used to his smiling and care free face. Fai suddenly stopped, seeing fresh footprints along the ground, going in the same direction as they were. Kurogane briefly glanced at the tracks but kept going. They were human tracks, for sure, probably a girl due to the size.

Up ahead, Kurogane stopped, coming onto a cliff that had a steep path going down. He looked onto the remains of a burned down village. Kurogane wasn't very surprised, the world they had landed in seemed a little too perfect to last.

As the others caught up they looked down towards the ruins. Fai's eyes seemed to narrow even more at the sight. Syaoran looked on with a blank face, same as Kurogane. Sakura had wide eyes and her hand over her mouth. After the initial shock disappeared, they allowed themselves to see the village in more detail.

Houses were completely destroyed, only a few beams stood having managed to escape the massacre. Bodies were littered across the entire village; whoever had done this didn't distinguish between child, adult or animal. Some small fires could be seen, not having been put out yet and there were scorch marks all along the ground.

As they were taking in the devastation of the village, they saw a person come out of one of the houses carrying a small bundle. Starting their descent towards the village, they decided to investigate further.

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The person clad in the white cloak had just finished laying a small baby with its mother and father; both had died, along with the baby, during the unprovoked attack. Once the person had finished, the person inspected the creatures that had just attacked the white clad stranger a few minutes ago. It was easy being rid of the nuisances, probably weaklings running off from the main pack trying to get a few more pickings.

"Pitiful," the person spoke. The person knelt down to get a closer look at the creature, but immediately covered their nose at the stench that reached their nostrils. The thing reeked of blood and sweat. Blood was spattered all over the body from the countless prey the creature had slain. The person's brow scrunched up in disgust. It had large fangs that could be seen coming out of its bottom lip and hard, scaly skin. It resembled something close to a lizard. _Lizards are a lot cuter_, the person thought. It had one horn on its head and slits for eyes. The ears were long and still moved in reflexes, even after death. Before the person could finish their inspection a voice interrupted.

"Are you the one who sent this town into ruin?" an angry voice from behind spoke.

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The group had just entered the village, or what was left of it. Having the smell of ash and burned bodies assault their noses, they quickly covered them.

"We should go look for that person came out of the house. This mess was most likely caused by him," Kurogane spoke. They all agreed and soon found themselves walking up behind the person, easily finding their way through the, now, somewhat flat landscape of the village.

"Are you the one who sent this town into ruin?" Syaoran asked forcefully.

The person, still unidentifiable, slowly rose from their crouched position inspecting the strange creature that could be seen all around the site, picking up the unusual staff that was previously on the ground beside her. The person of unknown name turned towards them. On instinct, Syaoran got into a defensive position in front of Sakura, Kurogane was watching coolly from behind and Fai was inspecting the strange non-human creatures that littered the ground around the stranger.

"Who are you?" the cloaked person spoke. By their voice, the person was female.

"Answer the question," Syaoran spoke up, getting annoyed at not being answered. The girl gave off a light chuckle.

"You're not of this world are you?" the girl spoke.

"How can you guess," Fai said entering the conversation, his smile had come back and he had a carefree air about him.

"You don't feel as if you're from this world. Then, there's the matter of those clothes," the girl said, you could just picture her smiles in the hidden confines of the white hood.

"You do not have to worry, I won't harm you in any way, and I didn't do this to the village. I was just passing through and found it like this. The attack was probably done a day or two ago judging by the state of the bodies." She said. "My name is Emiri and I humbly welcome you to our world," she paused, "or what's left of it," she said, her voice darkening.

The group wasn't expecting this, though they found it a lot better than what they **were **expecting; a harsh fight with the monsters that had done this. You could here the amusement in her voice again when she spoke.

"You know, after experiencing a greeting such as the one I just gave you, you, as the receiver, are expected to do the same," she said.

"It's also polite to show ones face," Kurogane spoke up. The girl chuckled again.

"Alright, fair enough, let's start over shall we?" Emiri said taking down her hood so that the group could finally see her face. "Hello, my name is Emiri, and I welcome you to Chaleem." Emiri was quite different than any person they had encountered so far on their journey. She looked to be around sixteen or seventeen years old with shoulder length grayish, silver hair that had light streaks of blue in various places. Her eyes were also a mystery. She had grey eyes with tiny flecks of blue swimming in them and her pupils were round, yet held an oval shape, giving an impression of slits, like a dragon. Fai was the first to speak.

"I am Fai, this is Syaoran and Sakura, and this over here," he paused and walked over to the next person in line to be introduced, "is Kuro-pin!" Fai said with a great smile, seeming to forget the carnage around him. Kurogane immediately tried hitting Fai but failed when he ran. He calmed down after a few seconds of deep breathing and was able to ask his question.

"What exactly happened here, if you weren't the one to cause it?" he asked. Right after his question, they heard a roar coming from the north.

"This is not the place," Emiri spoke in haste, all pleasantness and cool demeanor gone. "We must move away from this site as quickly as possible, the ones who did this will know I killed their allies and will come for revenge. We must leave," and with that, Emiri started walking of at a fast pace. When she didn't feel them following, she looked over her shoulder to see them looking at the sky to the north. "What are you waiting for, come on or you'll be eaten." This seemed to break them from their thoughts and made them jog to catch up. _This is going to be a long day_, Emiri thought. _How do I always get myself into this shit?_

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A/N

Ok here's an update! Thank you to everyone who reviewed, your thoughts are greatly appreciated! Please feel free to tell me anything and everything you like or dislike about the story and please people ... CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM. How do you like the length? Longer or shorter?Too little detail? Too slow? Please tell me so I can try and make it better. If you find ANY kind of mistake please tell me so I can fix it asap! . Thanks again to everyone who reviewed and I hope you're enjoying the story so far. Unfortunately, something I've been trying to aviod, this chapter and the next are more for information purposes and you won't be getting too much action but hopefully by the fourth, the real stuff can begin! . So until then please bear with me and please help me improve my writing style so that when the jucy parts come, it'll be good. Also I'm open for some suggestions on fluff, so if anybody has some, please tell me and I'll try to fit it in somewhere! .

Thanks!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own anything of Tsubasa Chronicles ... (wails) WHY WHY WHY IS LIFE SO CRUEL ... eh hemmm ... on with the story ...

**Tainted Memories**

Chapter Three:

The group again found themselves following a forest path, this time, going northwards, with Emiri leading them. Sometimes, they were on a clear path, and other times, they were on a path that only Emiri seemed to know. She led them through the underbrush, with each minute getting thicker.

"Shouldn't we be going to opposite way?" Kurogane asked. "Aren't those things coming from this direction?"

"They are, but I need to go north and I do not have time to take another root. This is the quickest way to my destination. There's also a place where you guys can stay safely, but until we get there please listen to what I say or you might end up dead, something I think we all want to avoid," Emiri said, still power walking down a path only she could see, staff thumping on the ground every second step. "Quickly, come, they will be flying over us in a few minutes," she said coming to a stop in front of a large cliff that reached about 10 meters high.

"How are we supposed to climb up this thing in only a few minutes?" Syaoran asked. "We need to find somewhere to hide now!" Emiri didn't seem to notice when Syaoran spoke. She was busy running her hand along a part of the rocks at the base of the cliff, searching for something.

"What are you doing?" Syaoran asked. Without responding, she perked up, finally finding what she was looking for. Kneeling down towards a spot that met with the underbrush of the forest, she placed her hand on a rock that didn't seem of any value to the onlookers. The second Emiri put her hand on the rock, a circle of light stared to form, then lines started connecting from one point of the circle to other points, creating an elaborate abstract pattern. Then, that small circle connected to others on a small area of the cliff and soon, the rocky face that they were just looking at slowly went from opaque, to transparent. They soon found themselves looking through an opening in the cliff into a small tunnel. Emiri turned to the group.

"Just," she paused, "trust me," she said, exhaling her breath during the last part of her sentence, letting out some stress. With that she turned into the cave and started walking a little way in, then turned and waited for the rest to follow. Once they heard the roaring of the monsters, they didn't need any more convincing and were more than happy to comply with the expectant stare they were receiving.

Once they entered the cave fully, the entrance slowly went from transparent to opaque again, shutting out any light from the outside world and plunging them into complete darkness. The air became tense with the loss of light and each person, save for Emiri was holding their breath.

"This way," Emiri said in a whispered voice into Kurogane's ear, which was closest, making him jump a foot in the air. The whisper was loud enough for the rest of the group to hear in the deafening silence which made them all jump a bit. Emiri could be heard chuckling from deeper within the cave. Sakura went closer to Syaoran. Kurogane was glaring in front of him, hoping that he was aiming at Emiri. You could hear his low growls. Fai was acting as usual, with a great smile on his face, though no one could see it. Mokona was sitting on Fai's shoulder, singing a song only he could understand in a low whisper, barely audible.

After a little bit of walking and noticing the stress the darkness was causing on the group that was still lagging behind her, Emiri thought she had had enough fun, listening to their grunts as they stubbed their toes on rocks and bumped into walls. She had tried to hold in her laughter to the best of her ability, but thought that Kurogane, who was still the closest to her without knowing it, could here. She knew she was receiving death glares from him, but that only added to her amusement. Of course they would never know how much she was enjoying herself. She thought she deserved a little bit of entertainment after what she had been through. She kind of felt sorry for these travelers who were unfortunate enough to meet her along their journey, but it couldn't be helped. She had always been taught that everything happened for a reason.

Emiri said a few words under her breath and the staff's jewel in her hand started glowing, the crystal turning red, orange, yellow, and just a little bit of blue, the colors of fire. She turned towards the group behind her smiling.

"If you could have done that before," Kurogane paused, gathering his bearings, "THEN WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU!" he yelled out, breathing hard after the outburst.

She replied with a simple answer, smiling all the while, "I like the dark." Each member of the group fell to the ground, anime style. "Come on, there's a cavern up ahead where we'll rest for a while, then we'll keep going after getting some sleep."

Just as Emiri had said, they came upon a large cavern within another half an hour's walk. Surprisingly, Fai had not tried once to upset Kurogane and kept quite during the whole trip. He was too absorbed in inspecting the walls of the cave. With the aid of Emiri's light, the group was able to make out drawings on the walls. They seemed to be of planets and creatures of a nature they had never seen before. There were pictures of what looked like dragons, resting on cliffs and on the outside of castles. There were also characters on the wall, seeming to be an ancient type of writing system that not even Syaoran could understand. Fai kept having this weird feeling in the pit of his stomach. Something he could not quite place.

"We'll rest in here," Emiri said entering a great cavern that had Stalagmites and Stalactites jutting out from floor and ceiling, all along the cavern. Each seemed to lightly glow with its own specific color. Emiri lead them deeper into the cavern, twisting and turning through the stalagmites that grew from the floor, some almost reaching the ceiling. Emiri lead them into a circular area, free of stalagmites with the remains of a fire in the center and wood placed off to the side. There was also a small area reserved for bedding, enough for all of them and more. They found a small stream a few meters away with fresh drinking water as well.

"What is this place?" Syaoran asked.

"Wait a little while and I'll explain as much as I can, then you can tell me why you're here and we'll see if I have to kill you or not," Emiri replied.

"WHAT!" Syaoran yelled. Emiri chuckled again.

"Just kidding," she said. "You guys are really easy to scare, aren't you?" she said in the middle of setting up a camp fire. Fai knelt down towards her and helped out. "What are you doing?" Emiri asked him.

"Why, helping out a beautiful girl, what else?" Fai said as if it was the most obvious thing to do, eyes twinkling and smiling at her. Emiri started laughing, but stopped shortly.

"Alright, whatever, less work for me," she said smiling at Fai as she continued her work, now with a little bit of help, shaking her head. Never had anyone actually helped her before. She remembered that they were from a different world and therefore, didn't know who exactly she was, and what she was capable of. She brushed it off. It was nice getting some help for once in her life. _Unless you count __**that**__ type of help_ Emiri thought bitterly.

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"Now, what exactly is going on?" Fai asked. Everyone had helped set up camp after Fai had gotten it started and they had it all done within ten minutes. Now, they were all sitting in a circle around the fire that blazed yellow and red. Emiri's staff, having its duty taken over by the fire, was laid beside her cot on the ground.

"Well, what do you want to know?" Emiri countered Fai's question with one of her own.

"How about we start with where we are," Syaoran half stated half asked.

"Alright," she paused in thought, "right now we are in the Mazic Caverns, outside of the town of Falmine. Oh and incase you didn't know, you are now in Chaleem. This place that we are sitting in is an area where travelers such as ourselves can rest without being found by enemies. It's protected by a magic barrier so that only certain people may enter."

"Chaleem," Fai said as if tasting the word on his tongue. "That means World of Magic, right?" Fai asked looking at Emiri inquisitively.

"Yes that's right, though unfortunately, there are only a few people left in this world that are actually able to use magic effectively," she replied.

"Effectively?" Sakura questioned.

"When I say effectively, I mean that most people now do not have the ability to use stronger types of magic. It's actually become a biased opinion. Now, because of the wars, those who are not able to use magic to help out in the wars are known to use non-effective magic, and those who are able to use it are effective," Emiri explained.

"Do the wars have to do with those flying things from earlier?" Syaoran asked.

"Partly, it's not just them. Someone has been plotting former allies against each other, causing countries to start wars with each other. With the added bonus of the Sengrath, those flying things as you call them, nothing except death ensues," Emiri said.

"You said that there was someone who was plotting countries against each other, did he suddenly come out of nowhere, or the source of his power?" Fai asked. Syaoran perked up here, seeing what Fai was trying to do.

"Yes actually, about two years ago is when everything started. A person named Sarkove somehow grew to enormous strength and was able to take control of most of the world. We have a feeling he's the one in charge of the Sengrath we saw earlier."

"We?" Kurogane asked.

"The mage council," she said. "I notice that you have a mage with you as well. I haven't seen you use any magic yet. Are you able to?" Emiri said looking at Fai.

"Well yes, how could you tell?" Fai asked sitting crisscrossed on the floor, holding his feet with his hands.

"Mages always have special signatures unique to them, yours seems very familiar though. It's close to one I've felt before. Tell me, why don't you use your magic? You could have easily just gone a different way than following me and would have still been fine against the Sengraths," Emiri said.

"Well, you see, I've taken an oath not to use magic anymore," Fai said. Emiri kept looking at him expectantly and Fai just looked right back. After a few seconds, knowing she was going to get any more information, she shrugged her shoulders and let it go.

"So what exactly brings you to Chaleem? I don't think that anyone would come here for a vacation any time soon," Emiri said.

"We're looking for something," Syaoran said, wondering how much he should give away.

"Well what is it? Maybe I can help you," Emiri offered.

"It's a feather," Syaoran said, still not quite trusting this new comer. Emiri laughed.

"You're going to have to do better than that if you want any help. There are millions of feathers in this world, unless you don't care what kind it is," Emiri said still laughing. She could understand why they didn't trust her and wouldn't force them into anything. Hell she didn't care at all; she was used to it for lesser reasons than theirs. Fai was the one to speak.

"It's a feather that has a great power which belongs to Sakura over there," Fai said, twisting his head to point at Sakura. "Do you know of any story or legend that might help us out? It could be during any time period."

"You might want to look for Sarkove. He's the only one that I can think of, but you might as well wait until we do something about him. He's extremely dangerous and he might not even have what you're looking for at all," Emiri said.

"No, we have to go, even if it's just a small chance," Syaoran said.

"Syaoran," Sakura said, touched at his courage just for her, Syaoran almost blushed … almost. Emiri chuckled.

"You know it's completely pointless," she stated. "You're not going to win," she paused "but I guess I can't really say that since I haven't seen any of you fight yet." She chuckled again. She was starting to enjoy being with theses guys; they brought her some amusement in her otherwise sorry excuse for a life. It was a relief, she felt. Still, Emiri's warnings didn't deter the confident group.

"Exactly, you haven't seen us fight and so cannot make any irrational decisions about our fighting skills," Kurogane said, grasping his sword with his hand out of reflex.

"Well, either way, we'll soon find out. Tomorrow we'll be out of these caves and then we can see how well you fight," Emiri said, "But for now, I suggest we all get some sleep."

"How can you be so sure of that?" Kurogane asked, watching Emiri lie down on her cot and

pull the blanket up to her neck.

"That we'll be fighting soon?" she asked. She gave out another soft chuckle from within the warmth of the blanket. "Trust me, in this world; there is always some type of enemy to fight with." Emiri didn't seem to want to speak anymore and so the rest of the group started laying down on their own cots getting ready to rest up for what they knew was going to be a day filled with many knew foes to conquer.

When Emiri heard the rhythmic breathing that signified sleep for her acquaintances, she whispered out the end of her sentence, "and usually, it's a fight for your life."

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A/N

Ok here's another chapter. Unfortuately, not as long as I wnated it to be, but I thought it was a good place to leave off. Tell me what you think of it and please review! Oh ya and thank you so much for all of the reviewers for the first and second chapters, and for all of you who didn't ... (just shakes head in dissapointment). Ok anyway, don't expect a chapter again this coming week I have a piano exam I have to take and I need to study study study or else my teacher shall kill me! lol Anyway thanks againand I hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Oh and just as a reminder ...

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	4. Chapter 4

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Disclaimer: I own nothing of Tsubasa Chronicles ... Apparently, it's just too much to ask for!

**Tainted Memories**

_Chapter 4:_

_He was there again, back in his own world, back at the floating castle with something akin to a grand cathedral at the top. From where he was positioned, he could see both the bridge that connected the mighty castle to the ground, its smooth structure gently swaying in the light breeze that sent chills up his back for some odd reason. He was used to the frigid air his northern country came with, even after being away for so long. Becoming bored with the gentle sway of the bridge, he looked up towards the sky where he saw bright lights of different hues of green and blues, seeming to come from the cathedral-like structure at the top. The stars shone dully in comparison to the astonishing light show that he could watch for hours on end, if he had not already done so in his earlier days living here._

"_This can't be real," he spoke to himself. Something was wrong but he couldn't quite place it. He looked around himself and found himself staring into a room decorated in something close to Corinthian columns along the walls. It had a large rectangular table in the center, filed to the edges in scrolls both old and new. The room was decorated in many gold ornaments and had sparse furniture, making it seem empty, the walls painted a color that seemed to be white, silver and a hint of blue with paintings of many witches and wizards of high status adorning them. _

"_What," he asked himself, pausing as he put his hand to his head, "what's wrong with me, wasn't I just outside?"_

_He found himself being pulled by some unknown power towards a doorway to his right. Upon arriving at the opening, he found himself looking into a long and dark passageway. Despite knowing this castle like the back of his hand, he had no memories of this passage. _That's odd, _he thought to himself, _I thought I new every secret this castle had to offer. _He looked into the passageway, only to find that he could only see a few meters in front of him._

"_I guess not," he said to himself, starting to walk into the passage, still being pulled by some unknown force. He found himself walking through a corridor plagued with darkness. Just as he thought this, torches on both sides of the walls lit up the passage, showing its length, the end not in sight. Along the way he stopped to look at the carvings that adorned the walls, they were illustrations of the history of his world, or so he thought. He could see things that he had learned, but they were different, some by just small actions and others, complete opposites of what he was taught. Despite his confusion, he kept going. After a while walking down the deserted passageway, pondering on the drawings, he came across a large room with a magic circle in the middle, one with an extravagant design where he could make out only a few symbols he knew: the moon, the sun, a lot of stars and many other ethereal symbols derived from the heavens._

What is this? _He thought. _

_The circle began to glow a bright aqua blue color, separating into two circles, one within the other, both spinning in opposite directions. After a few seconds, a drop of universal material resembling a rain drop slowly descended from the ceiling to the ground above the circles that were now spinning at a rate so that the naked eye could not decipher any of the symbols that were once visible. _

It looks like somebody is coming from a different world, _he thought._

_As expected, he could see the feint outline of a person in the drop which now reflected many of the colors in the present room, shimmering hues of unimaginable colors. What was strange was that when he looked back at the ceiling, he could see long claws trying to reach for the person in the drop. He felt his heart rate spend up, he had seen those before. He watched as the long scaly arms of the Sengrath tried to pry the person back to their world, each arm a different color, one, blood red, almost reached its prey but was forced back into the void in the spaces between the worlds. The drop of space and time finally reached the floor, the person, whoever it was, safe. He could not see the face, but judging by the size, it was a small child, no older than five or six years old. The child was covered in darkness, making any facial features impossible to see. A sound to his left ripped his attention from the child, forcing his eyes to look in that direction. What he saw stopped his breathing and made his heart skip a beat._

"_Ashura."_

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Within the Mazic Caverns, sapphire blue eyes opened to their fullest extent as Fai sat up from his cot, holding his head with one of his hands.

_Where did that dream come from? _He asked himself. It had been a while since he had those dreams and pondered on why, on the first night in this new world, the dream came. _Who was that child? What was Ashura doing there? Did I not seal him? _All of these thoughts were jumbled in his head, not making any sense to the confused mage. Deciding to get a drink out of the stream, Fai got up and headed to his left, where he could hear the crystalline water flow through the river. Just as he was coming towards the river, he saw a figure sitting by its edge. He slowly made his way towards the figure who turned out to be Emiri. Before he could say anything, she spoke.

"Couldn't sleep?" she asked.

Trying to forget about the dream for a little while, he plastered a fake smile on his face for show and answered.

"Yup," he said. "What might you be doing up this late?" he asked her.

"Actually, it's more like early. But that's beside the point. I always wake early, it's a habit of mine, I've yet to decide whether it's a good or bad one though," she said, finally turning her head to look at Fai, who was now near the streams edge, dipping his hands in to get a drink. When Fai turned and looked at Emiri, he noticed she had an exhausted look on her face, it also portrayed stress, and was that fear he saw? She had a haunted look in her eyes, one that Fai decided not to comment on, for the moment.

"Come sit," Emiri said, patting a spot beside her, "there's no point in going back to sleep, we'll be leaving soon anyway." She said. She was curled up into a little ball with her knees up to her chest, arms holding them in place and head resting on her legs. Her cloak was forgotten, laying to her right, folded up in a small bundle. She had on a plain ocean blue halter top that left the top half of her back bare, with only a small vine design in the corner near her hip, and baggy black pants with many pockets adorning them, all seeming to be full.

As Fai sat down in the vacant spot next to her, Emiri reached into one of the pockets near her ankle and pulled out a small cylindrical box that rattled a little as she moved it. It was decorated in celestial designs, looking to be a small map of the universe. He could see the swirls of other worlds with hundreds of suns and on one side he thought he saw a black hole!

The decorations didn't stay in one place as they should have, but continued to move, showing new planets and stars every few seconds, within the few moments Emiri had taken it out, there was a meteor shower glowing with fabulous colors but it was soon over as the scene changed yet again. Emiri pointed it towards him giving him a questioning eye. When he didn't respond, she asked verbally.

"Want to take a try?" she asked.

"What is it?" Fai asked, a little cautious of this new device. Sure, he was experienced in magic but he had never seen anything like this before.

"This is a Retimees," she said. "It can basically tell you things you may not know and also, if you have a dream that you do not understand, there is a chance it can show you the meaning of those dreams." She looked quizzically at him, looking for a response of any kind. He just stared at it, still unsure. After a few minuets of silence, he responded.

"You know I had a dream?" Fai asked her.

"Yes," she said smiling. "One of my gifts, I can tell when something is bothering someone and it just so happens that a dream is bothering you." Before he could say anything, Emiri continued on, "don't worry, I won't ask you anything about it. It's your dream and I don't have a right to know anything about it, I'm only offering you some help on what it may mean." Fai promptly shut his mouth, which was about to say something before Emiri interrupted. "Well, while your pondering, I can do a reading for myself if you like, to show you exactly how it's done," Emiri offered. She didn't really mind, she was going to do one even before he woke up and joined her, she didn't really feel like doing it another time, she needed to figure out what was going on, and even if the Retimees showed her exactly what she wanted, it would most likely be in a confusing manner and she'd end up staying up for a few nights trying to figure out what the hell it was trying to say! _Just like last time, _she thought.

Without wasting anymore time, Emiri shook the cylinder five times vertically and then five time horizontally before letting the contents of the box spill onto the smooth rock floor of the cavern. The others were still sleeping and Fai found himself mesmerized by the contents that were splayed out in front of him and Emiri, onto a circle that Fai hadn't noticed until Emiri had dropped … something.

"What are those?" Fai asked attentively, his eyes sharper than usual.

"They are pieces of stars," Emiri replied. "Do you see the circle?" she asked. "It is called a Remthise, it is a magic circle created from the stars to show past, present, or future."

"How do you know which one it tells?" Fai asked.

"You don't," she answered simply.

"So how can it tell you anything about a dream if it only tells the past, present and future?" Fai asked, he was intrigued by this device that seemed so powerful as to see through time and space.

"It's different, you have to concentrate hard on the dream to make it work properly, and even then, there is only a chance of success. It's the strength of your mind that will bring the odds against, or in your favor. For instance, this, in front of us is showing the past, present or future, which one, we don't know. That is up to us and time to tell. It may not even be our own fortune, but somebody we know. It all depends on chance." Emiri explained.

"So why use it if it only has a small chance of working?" Fai asked.

"It always works," Emiri said. "Just not in the way you think. It will always tell you something important, no matter what. It never focuses on the small things, like the universe itself. It is enormous. One small thing may change another small thing, but, mess with the bigger things, and everything turns upside down. You may not see what you want to see, but you may see things that are just as important, you just weren't thinking about them until it showed you. It helps to focus the mind on what it should be doing." Without further adieu, Emiri looked down towards the star pieces situated in various place within the Remthise.

"Why are some of them not in the circle?" Fai asked Emiri who was concentrating on her prediction.

"The ones that aren't in the circle play no part in the fortune, and therefore do not need to be in the Remthise," she replied, still staring contemplatively at the stars. The yellow, pink and orange stars were laid just outside of the circumference, while each of the others were placed in different spots in it. Emiri started to explain some of what it meant.

"Ok, do you see where the white star is situated?" she asked pointing to a place on the right side of the Remthise. She received a small nod from Fai, who seemed to be absorbing everything she said. "You can tell that it is hard to see because of the darkness surrounding it." It was true. The white star could be seen, but only if you looked closely, it was in a place devoured by darkness in the circle. "The white star symbolizes hope and peace. As you can probably tell, it being very un-noticeable isn't a good thing. This could mean that there is still a chance for hope and peace, but it is swallowed in darkness and needs to be set free. It could also symbolize that the hope within the person's heart is slowly fading away and will soon be forgotten as the darkness consumes it, or already has. It could have many other meanings, but you get the main gist of it," she said, shrugging her shoulders slightly.

Fai continued to stare intently at the Remthise as Emiri continued to explain. He noticed that some of the stars were actually moving in the Remthise. When he asked why, Emiri explained.

"The red, black, purple and grey are all situated within the black hole in the center, continuously moving in a circle. The circular motion symbolizes a never ending cycle," Emiri said. She paused as she took a closer look at the stars within the black hole. She seemed to be apprehensive about continuing. Instead, she focused on the other stars situated near the moon in the circle. Fai didn't comment and decided to come back to it later if need be.

"Do you see how the dark green, green and brown stars are near the moon? The moon symbolizes night and shadows. This could possibly mean that bitterness, durability and strength are all hiding, but are still there. It means that during normal time, when nothing is really going on, each of these qualities are suppressed and won't come out. Though, just like many of the animals that wake during the night, so do these. Only when needed do these qualities come out and if not needed, will continue to stay hidden.

"Also, you see we have the blue star near the sun, very close actually," Emiri said after further studying the position of the star. "Since the blue star symbolizes coldness, it is probably referring to the coldness in the heart, and, since it is so close to the sun, it means that it is trying to melt. Do you see how it is shaking a little?" Emiri asked. When Fai took a closer look, he indeed saw it shaking.

"Why is it doing that?" Fai asked.

"It's because the heart of the person is trying to fight it," Emiri said, not saying any more. She seemed to be coming uncomfortable with this reading.

_Could it be that this is her future? Or maybe her past? Then again, we only just met her, what if it is now? Or, does it have anything to do with her at all? It could be one of us as well, or maybe one of her friends. This thing has too many possibilities to be sure. _All of these thoughts ran through Fai's head, he found himself very interested in this girl. She seemed so complex, never showing much emotion and yet showing so much. He wanted to figure her out, and also figure out why he was feeling the way he was. Feeling as if he new this world, but, when he searched through his memories, he could not recall ever coming to this world before. _So what is it then? _He asked himself, becoming frustrated. He decided to see if he could get her to continue. The only ones left were the ones in the black hole.

"What of the ones in the center?" he asked, trying to get her to read them. He was starting to get how each star means something and that where it is in the Remthise symbolizes something different. You just had to make connections between what each place and star symbolized. Emiri looked at him with a strange look in her eyes. They were blank and yet, he couldn't help getting the feeling that she was silently asking him to not ask her to explain. He ignored those as she swallowed whatever it was that was making her hesitate and continued with the explanation. She took a deep breath before speaking; she was starting to regret doing this in front of him.

"The red star stands for death and blood, but, it can also mean life. That would probably mean that throughout whichever time this is showing us, there was, is, or is going to be a continuous cycle of," she paused, "most likely war." Emiri seemed to be thinking and wouldn't say anything more, so Fai decide to break her out of her reverie so that she could continue, though he admitted to himself, he wasn't too keen on it. It seemed that the bad stars were the more prominent in the Remthise.

"What about the rest?" Fai asked, effectively breaking her out of her trance.

"Oh, umm," she faltered. "The purple one symbolizes tempting forces. This could mean the person is always being tempted to do something; it could be anything, by some unknown power. It could be their own heart, or outside influences that are pushing them to do this but, we may never know. The grey star, which is right beside that one, further into the black hole, symbolizes deceptive powers. This could mean that someone or a bunch of people may be tricking the person with lies to perhaps bend them to their will. This also goes in a continuous cycle, meaning it never stops." Emiri paused here unsure of whether to go on. _Should I continue? _She thought. That last star had her guessing. It was the black one. _Of course, just my luck, but should I even be surprised?_

"What about that black one?" Fai asked, breaking her out of her thoughts.

_Great, I'm going to make him suspicious if I just stop now, so I guess I have to continue, _Emiri thought to herself before going on.

Fai on the other hand, was watching her reactions intently. Judging by what this thing had told them, Emiri didn't, or isn't going to have a very happy life, if this was indeed her fortune. He believed it was judging by her reactions throughout the entire reading, most times looking as if she was remembering something. It seemed that everything was not good. He was broken out of his thoughts when she started, this time pausing every few seconds.

"The black star," she paused. "It symbolizes darkness," she paused again, "and death." She looked over at Fai to see his reaction; he had become very quiet and kept staring intently at the Remthise. Getting hardly any reaction, except the waver she could see in the corner of his eyes, which were intently focused on the circle, she continued.

"Because it is in the center of the black hole, it is most prominent. It means that, throughout every moment, there is always darkness and death in the person's life. It may be in the heart of the person, or the actual death or fading into darkness of the person or the people around them." She did not go on after this and became extremely quiet. Fai left her a lone for a moment before speaking, very softly.

"Do you have any idea whether this is telling you the past, present or future?" Fai asked. He noticed her hesitation at the question. When she didn't answer, he took a guess.

"Was it the past it was showing? You're past maybe?" Judging by her reaction, he was right. Her head shot up to meet his eyes, there seemed to be the moisture in them, the start of tears, but were immediately gone in a second. He looked straight into her grayish eyes, but before he could say anything more, they were interrupted by Kurogane who was just waking up.

"AHHHHHH," Mokona screeched, effectively waking up everyone else after Kurogane completely sprinted into a seated position and made Mokona fall off.

"YOU LITTLE WHITE MONSTER! WHY THE HELL WERE YOU SLEEPING ON MY FACE!" Kurogane yelled in anger shaking a fist at Mokona.

"That's odd," they could here Mokona speak, even though they couldn't see them very well.

"Wasn't I just sleeping next to Fai?" The little white creature thought, holding his paw to his chin in thought. This did nothing to fuse out Kurogane's temper.

"FAI!" Kurogane screamed.

Before Fai could stop Emiri, she quickly picked up the star pieces and put them back into the Retimees, which got rid of the Remthise. Fai could see another meteor shower on the cylinder before Emiri quickly shoved it back into her pocket. She bolted to a standing position and with a flourish; her cloak was once again around her form. She immediately walked back the small camp, leaving Fai to ponder.

_It must have been her past. How she reacted is answer enough, _he thought. Before he could get any further in his thoughts, Kurogane came running towards him with his sword out and head red in anger.

"Hyuuuuuu! Kuro-pin really shouldn't get so mad all the time, it's bad for his health," Fai said, making him turn even more red. Just as the Samurai was about to bring his sword down upon Fai, he dodged it with ease and ran with his arms flailing, back to the camp and around it, all the while thinking about what had happened.

_Who are you, Emiri? _He thought, just before ducking behind Sakura for cover.

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A/N

Well? What'd you think! Good, bad? I found that it took way too long to just get this part over with, to tell you the truth, I'm just writing whatever comes ot mind! Of course, I have a plan for the story, but the finer details just come each chapter! lol I hope this was ok, if anything is confusing please feel free to ask questions and I'll try to answer them to the best of my ability!

Getting this chapter out so early is actually quite funny to me since I told youlast update I wouldn't be able to, well I decided, what the heck, I can study later! lol Anyway hope you guys enjoyed this chapter as much as I loved writing it! Seriously, this is the first time I've made something like the Retimees up! . Can't wait to here what you think of it, even if it's bad, please review and remeber to tell me your honest opinions on everything! Especially if I mixed things up, that woudln't be too good right? lol

Anyway, thanks to everyone who reviewed, they definately make me work a lot faster, as you can tell by this chapter! . The two reviews I got made me feel like writing, so I did, thanks alot you guys!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Tsubasa Chronicles, just Emiri!

**Tainted Memories**

Chapter 5:

As Emiri, Sakura and Syaoran started cleaning up the camp grounds, Kurogane continued chasing Fai with Mokona situated on his shoulder.

"Kuro-pin shouldn't get mad, Kuro-pin shouldn't get mad!" Mokona chanted, his white body moving up and down as Fai kept running, and ears streaming behind him. The rest of the group didn't mind having to do all the work, they were being repaid with entertainment. At least, Emiri thought so.

"Alright, that's enough," Emiri spoke up like a mother hen once they were ready to leave. Closing her eyes in concentration and raising her staff, she muttered a few words and Kurogane was lifted from the ground, his legs still moving to catch Fai.

"WHAT THE HELL! PUT ME DOWN!" Kurogane screamed at Emiri. The crystal atop Emiri's staff turned from clear, crystalline, to a silvery-grey color that created a whirlwind effect inside the jewel.

"Now, now, calm down, no need to shout. Now, what's the magic word?" Emiri taunted him, still keeping him in the air with her magic.

"HA! AS IF I'D EVER SAY ANYTHING TO YOU WENCH! NOW … PUT … ME … DOWN!" Kurogane yelled.

"Tut, tut Kurogane, That's not very nice. I believe you need to," she paused, "chill out."

Just as Emiri said those words, large snow flakes started falling onto Kurogane, seemingly coming out of nowhere, coating is black hair with white. In the staff's jewel, the whirlwind now had traces of snow within it. Emiri was having the most fun she'd had in ages, just teasing this guy. She chuckled as Kurogane tried wiping of the snowflakes that landed on his head, but, no matter how hard he tried, they just kept falling. Soon Emiri stared commanding the snow to attach to Kurogane's hair and mouth, making him look like a skinny version of St. Nick.

Fai and Mokona were having a great time laughing at Kurogane's misfortune while Syaoran and Sakura watched in amusement. Emiri was having too much fun to notice that she was being watched by Fai, even though he was busy laughing with Mokona. _It looks like she's back to normal, but I wonder what all that was about,_ Fai thought, remembering the Retimees and the strange, dark fortune it showed. He also remembered the dream he had; he would have to get Emiri to let him use that Retimees one day before they left this world.

The smile was suddenly off Emiri's face and she looked towards her right to where a large cave started. She abruptly broke her spell on Kurogane and turned to face that direction, concentrating hard to see if she hadn't imagined it.

Kurogane landed ungracefully in a heap on the cavern floor where he continued to curse Emiri under his breath. He was about to tell Emiri what he really thought about her little stunt when she hushed everyone into silence, raising her hand to do so. She still held her concentration towards the cave, now in front of her. Syaoran came over to her.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Do you feel that?" Emiri asked, looking towards each person in the group.

"Feel …" Kurogane started, but was unable to finish as he realized what she meant. He could feel a slight shaking in the floor every few seconds. Fai looked towards a small puddle near his feet and could see the water creating ripples when it should have been still.

"What's that?" Sakura asked. "I can here something coming from over there," she pointed to the cave Emiri was studying. Everyone kept quite as they tried to here it too. The group could here a slight thumping corresponding with the rumbling in the floor. With each second, it got louder as whatever it was got closer. Emiri broke from her reverie.

"Oh, oh," Emiri spoke in an urgent voice. "Everyone, quickly, follow me," Emiri said, now a slight panic in her voice. "Come, we've overstayed our welcome, apparently," she said getting a bucket, running to the small stream and filling it with water. When she came back she quickly dowsed the fire, the last thing to do, and started off in a power walk towards the cave to her left, the rest following her, only the faint glow of the cavern's walls to guide them.

"What is it?" Kurogane asked, forgetting for the moment Emiri's little performance earlier, himself being the main attraction.

"It's a dragon," Emiri spoke, still walking at the same speed.

"WHAT!" Syaoran asked. "I thought you said we would be safe here!" he said in accusing tones.

"We should have been, the dragons usually nest deeper within the caverns during this time of year, they never come out now," an understanding look came upon her face, which then turned to one of anger.

"So what changed?" Syaoran asked, now slightly jogging to keep up.

"Sarkove," Emiri growled out, "he must be the one behind this! He's probably messing around with them to try and kill some of us off. That or those are his private dragons. But, that's not possible since they shouldn't be able to get in," Emiri spoke, more to herself than to the group who just kept looking behind them, towards the other cave for any signs of the oncoming dragon. The noise was now getting louder as the ground began to shake more forcefully.

"Oh shit!" Emiri spoke, coming to an abrupt stop, mid stride, causing Syaoran to bump into her. "Everyone, find a place to hid, NOW!" she said.

"Why, what's," Kurogane started, but was stopped when he saw what made her halt. Inside the cave they were about to enter, he could see light, resembling that from a fire.

"THEY CAN BREATH FIRE?" Kurogane yelled, but was promptly shut up by Emiri's hand covering his mouth.

"No," she said in sarcasm, "dragons don't breathe fire, they breathe out a gentle and warm wind with nice pink flowers making you believe you're in a dream!" she said, giving him a whack on his head. She then went to find a place to hide, with the others going different ways, none far enough to loose sight of each other.

Sakura and Syaoran, both inseparable, if they could help it, were together behind a large stalagmite to Emiri's left. Kurogane and Fai were both on their own, Fai behind a skinny stalagmite and Kurogane behind a small set of boulders further down with Mokona attached to his head, both to Emiri's right. Emiri herself was situated in the middle of each group, behind a single small boulder, her staff held in a death grip.

Just as each person found a spot to hide in the surrounding stalagmites and boulders along the cavern floor, a red scaled snout, with sharp yellow teeth jutting out from the top lip could be seen inching its way out of the, now lit, cave from which it came. The nostrils gave off a loud snort, a dirty ash cloud wafting into the air. After sniffing a few times, the rest of the head stared to follow into the large cavern. The group, excluding Emiri were paralyzed in place but were still able to see what the dragon looked like.

As the rest of the head come out, they could see sharp yellow eyes with black slits in their center. The short and stubby ears of the beast were laid back against its head in a defensive position, _no doubt they're able to smell us_, Emiri thought. _If we can just get into that cave without it spotting us_ … her thoughts changed, _it may be confused by the other smells in this room. If we can hold off until that other dragon comes_ … Emiri kept trying to think of escape plans. All of which included no fighting. She didn't want to fight the dragons if she could help it. As all of these thoughts roamed through Emiri's head, the rest of the dragon's body came out of the cave.

The dragon's body was a deep mahogany color, with each individual scale having a hint of black along each edge, the same color as the wings. Its clawed feet scraped against the floor and every step it took felt like a miniature earthquake, its long smooth and pointed tail swinging along behind it. As its whole body finally made it out, it spread its massive wings, craning its neck forward as if stretching after a long sleep. Unlike the top side of the wings, the underside was pitch black, more so than when the group first entered the Mazic Caverns without a light source.

Each member of the group held their breath, neither person making any noise, fearing it would bring upon the attention and wrath of the enormous creature, not ten feet in front of them. Kurogane was holding onto Mokona's mouth, who was just about to start singing. The creature started sniffing around the room, trying to catch the intruders' stench, _us_, Emiri thought.

As it lazily walked towards the freshly used camp sight, Emiri tried catching the others attention by making frantic motions with her hand. When she accomplished her goal, she told them to stay still and lay low, not making any noise. It seemed they all had broken out of their petrified states and were looking on warily at the actions of the dragon. As the creature continued sniffing, Emiri noticed something it didn't. She slowly smiled, then dropped it.

If she was alone, this would have been amusing. With her new companions however, it was a whole different story. She needed to make sure they stayed safe. She didn't care what happened to her, but she would fight to the death to make sure no body else died while with her.

The dragon, too absorbed in the smell of the camp, was oblivious to the other smells in the cavern, namely, the other dragon finally making its appearance. The group watched eagerly to see what would come of this meeting, slightly moving to get a better vantage point. The new dragon was much different from this one.

Its body and head were a dark blue color with highlights of purple adorning the scales, making the body look like it had waves rolling over it with each movement. Its head was skinnier and had small horns at the top between each of the long ears that drooped halfway to the ground. It had multiple jutting teeth from the top of its snout and its split tongue kept coming out every minute to taste the air. It immediately caught the taste of the other dragon in the room and let out a loud roar, shaking the cavern and making a few stalactites fall from the ceiling, some coming down onto the group.

Syaoran quickly dived out of the way of the pointed piece of mineral now falling towards him and Sakura. Thankfully, they both found a new hiding spot just a few feet away that they were able to escape to without being noticed by either of the dragons, who were now baring their teeth at each other.

Kurogane just barely missed behind turned into a human shish kabob, the stalactite sticking out of the ground between his legs, very close to something of great value to all men. He wore an expression of shock which quickly turned to great relief, and then he flinched; thinking what would have happened if it had hit its target. Mokona jumped onto the top of the mineral deposit and started jumping up and down on it. He needed to change places now since the stalactite would not let him fit properly.

Emiri was trying to hold in her laughter as she watched Kurogane struggle to find a new spot, dragging Mokona by the ears. He found one out of her sight, but all thoughts of laughter soon came to an end as the new dragon finally came completely into view so that each group member could fully see it. There eyes had already gotten used to the feeble light the mineral deposits let off.

Unlike the first dragon, this second dragon's wings were attached to its front claws. Its hind legs allowing it to stand on two feet if need be. Its long tail was the same color as the rest of its body, but it had long and sharp, beige spikes jutting out from every inch along the top and sides. They may have been white long ago. Some were broken in half or chipped of, probably due to other encounters. By far, this dragon was much smaller than the other, about half its size.

Within seconds, all thoughts of the intruders the red dragon was tracking left as it focused on this new, more prominent, threat. Each dragon gave off a loud battle cry that shook that cavern twice as much as the first and made more jutting rocks from the ceiling cave in. One was headed straight for Emiri. She did the only thing she could, run to the first hiding spot she saw. With each dragon now in battle, their senses were more distracted and therefore, would only be able to see any of them if they moved for too long or made too much noise. It just so happened that the closest spot was already occupied by Fai.

Having no choice, she made it to Fai and squeezed into the tight space that, if they were to stick together like glue, would be able to hide both of them. Another upside to this was that Emiri could now see Kurogane holding his sword in the ready, watching the dragons from the corner of his eye. Emiri still held her staff in the ready, in case she needed to use it. _This may be our chance_, she thought.

The dragons started circling each other, both deciphering the best course of action. All of a sudden, they bounded towards each other, teeth bared and claws at the ready. They crashed into each other with full force, the larger, red dragon, bringing the smaller, blue one to the ground. The blue one quickly slashed at the red dragon's stomach using its back claws, creating a large, bloody gash.

As the dragons were fighting, the cavern shook. Syaoran held tightly onto Sakura and Kurogane clung onto the boulder he was hiding behind. Emiri nearly gasped as she found herself being pulled in front of Fai, his arms holding her to him by her shoulders. She looked up towards his face to see him smiling down at her, her breath caught as he leaned down and spoke quietly into her ear. Now that the dragons were fighting each other, they wouldn't be able to here what they did unless it was something very loud.

"Like this, we can hide better," Fai whispered, still smiling down at Emiri as he lifted his head once more to turn and stare at the fighting dragons. It was amazing Emiri was able to hear him with all of the noise the dragons were making. Emiri continued to look up at him, a slight blush adorning her face.

_What's wrong with me_, she thought, _why is it suddenly so hard to breathe?_ She continued to look up at Fai, all thoughts of the dragons escaping her head as she took in the sight of his golden hair and sapphire eyes, what she would do to … _NO … NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!_ She yelled in her head, finally ripping her gaze from his face. _Bad, bad, bad thoughts, bad Emiri, this is not the time to think,_ her thoughts came to a halt by a harsh cry coming from the blue dragon.

She looked in the direction the noise was coming from, and to her horror, the blue dragon had its mouth wide open, with light emanating from it, creating a yellow orb of energy. The bad thing was … it was facing them. Emiri waved to everyone to get the hell out of there, and 'get out of there' they did. While the dragons were pre occupied with fighting, they ran as fast as they could towards the cave they were originally heading for.

As the yellow orb grew in intensity, they could feel each individual hair stand on end, and could here a crackle in the air as the energy from the dragon took form. As the group was out in the open, the dragon fired it's energy blast towards the red dragon, but, seeing the group out of the corner of its round eye, its head turned, along with the stream of energy towards the group. Noticing this, Emiri commanded the group to halt.

"Don't move and stay close to me," Emiri spoke in a tone slightly louder than her usual tone while talking. Mokona, taking her command literally, jumped onto her shoulder.

"Mokona will listen to Emiri and stay close!" the white manju said.

Ignoring the white creature Emiri lifted up her staff and immediately, a barrier formed around them. The staff's crystal glowed silver-grey with streaks of brown. The energy blast deflected off of the barrier and crashed into a bunch of boulders by the stream.

The red dragon, turning its head to see what the other dragon was aiming at noticed, what it would call, its next meal. The blue dragon had the same gleam in it eyes, both agreeing that the pesky humans would be a much easier, and tastier snack than each other. The humans and dragons found themselves in a stand off, neither species moving.

"Oh, oh," Emiri whispered in the deafening silence.

"What do we do now?" Kurogane asked, each person was standing completely still a few feet from each other.

"Um, let me think," Emiri spoke, and then paused. She said one simple word after what seemed like a minute of concentration. "Run."

Just as she uttered those words, the dragons took off, running at a rapid speed towards their desired pray. The group ran into the passage at full speed, trying to evade the oncoming assault. At the outer edge of the cave, the dragons collided into each other, each one trying to catch the pray before the other could sink its sharp teeth into them, tearing at the earth of the cave with their claws. This allowed the group to get a little ahead, before the red dragon pushed the blue one back and entered the cave after them.

Luckily for them, unlike the first cave they walked through, this one was lit up by small fires along the ground and walls from the red dragon that first came down this passage. They were able to see everything in front of them and therefore wasted no time ripping or crashing into walls. The dragon roared behind them. Sakura and Syaoran were in the front with Kurogane and Fai behind them, Emiri and Mokona taking the rear.

When Emiri turned to look back at what the dragon was doing, she noticed the tell-tale yellow glow, inside the dragons neck, that told of fire. The dragon was still running, with the blue one behind, sometimes, scratching at the red one's back to try and get ahead.

"Everyone, run faster!" Emiri yelled from behind. As each looked behind to see what she was talking about, they could see the glow that contrasted brightly with it dark skin and ran even faster. Just as the group turned a corner, the dragon exhaled deeply, and, instead of air, breathed out a bright red and yellow inferno. The flames, hot enough to have come straight from the nether world, were somewhat absorbed by the wall it hit, only some being deflected towards the group. Emiri quickly put up a small shield protecting Mokona and herself from the flames. The group continued on, with the dragon not far behind and catching up fast, they still couldn't see the exit.

Passing by more small bomb fires and fallen rocks, it seemed like the cave would never end. They found themselves entering another, smaller cavern, with many more caves lining each curved wall. The cavern glowed just the same as the first one, but this one was completely smooth, with nothing but a small river going across the middle and ending in a small pond close to the wall to their right.

"Which way do we go now?" Sakura asked, being held close to Syaoran.

"Straight ahead, towards the cave two to the left of the one directly in front of you," Emiri spoke. They immediately started following Syaoran who listened to Emiri's directions. Just as they were half way to the middle of the cave, the blue dragon landed in front of them, teeth bared and in a position close to a cat ready to pounce. It let off a long roar that made each group member hold their ears for protection.

The red dragon soon followed and had them trapped between two pairs of sharp teeth. The group stayed still, they could smell the dragons' putrid breath, even though they were still a good distance away. They were not however far enough to attempt escape to the desired cave. Emiri studied their surroundings, looking for a means of escape. Nothing coming to mind, she raised her staff, just as both dragons decided to barbeque them and created a barrier of wind and earth. The fire was reflected off of it, back towards the dragons.

Each dragon easily dodged it and started circling the group.

"Any bright ideas?" Kurogane asked.

"I'm thinking," Emiri replied.

"Well, think harder, and hurry it up. While I wait, I'm going to go and fight," Kurogane stated, starting to leave the circle.

"You can try," Emiri said not stopping him. When he asked why, she said, "it's your choice, I won't interfere."

"I'm coming too," Syaoran said, his hand held in a fist and looking towards the circling dragons. Sakura started to protest, but she was cut off when both men left the protection of the barrier. "Protect Sakura," Syaoran stated before fully leaving the barrier.

"Ok!" Fai said in his regular happy mood, seeming to be completely oblivious to the situation they were in. Emiri found it odd but didn't comment.

Emiri continued to look over the mental maps she had created in her head of these caverns, deciphering where they should go from there. She looked towards the blue dragon, which let out a shrill cry of pain, and saw that Syaoran was successful in giving it a nice kick to the head. Kurogane was fairing a little worse, his sword not being able to cut through the scales that acted like armor. Emiri tried giving him some advice.

"Kurogane, don't try attacking it from the top, those scales are harder than steel, you have to attack from underneath!" Emiri yelled, still going through those maps.

"I don't need help from you!" Kurogane yelled back to her.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Emiri mumbled, knowing full well he needed that information

Syaoran was starting to get tired, as he was constantly being thrown to the ground. For now, they would only get bruises, Emiri wanted to think of something before one of them got killed. Syaoran just nearly missed a hit from the blue dragon's spiky tale that made Sakura put her hand to her mouth, her eyes gong wide.

"Wait a sec," Emiri said to herself. She just remembered that one of the maps had labeled the river in this exact cavern. At the end of it, where the where the pond was, there was an escape!

_Now, how to stop those dragons long enough to keep them away_, Emiri thought. Mokona had already switched to Fai's shoulder and was singing a chant to help Syaoran and Kurogane, the latter of the two having a vein popping out of his head.

She racked her brain through all of the spells she knew. Magic would have to be the only answer, no matter how much she didn't want to use it. _That's it!_ She thought. Emiri immediately started drawing a large circle in the air with her staff. Where the staff pointed, a stream of blue light burst forth and stayed in the air as Emiri completed the rest of the circle. She had to hurry, Kurogane and Syaoran were getting beat up pretty bad. Despite Syaoran's good start, the dragon was just too strong, same with Kurogane. No matter what he did, he couldn't get underneath the dragon to hit it.

"What's that?" Sakura asked.

"It's a paralysis circle," she bluntly stated.

"What are you going to do with it?" she asked.

"You'll see," Emiri replied. As soon as she was done drawing the intricate designs throughout the circle, consisting of a lightning symbol, sun, moon, stars, and a whole bunch of lines that created a feeling of a never ending path.

Once the circle was complete, she waved her staff across the circle and past, multiplying it by twenty, each circle an exact replica of the first.

"Kurogane, Syaoran, get out of the way now!" She yelled. Syaoran moved immediately, but Kurogane started arguing.

"What do you mean, 'get out of the way!' I almost have him!" he spoke.

"NOW!" She scolded, making him pout and grudgingly get out of the way. The dragons started advancing on the two fighters, making easy targets, not fighting back. Before they could do anything, Emiri launched ten circles towards each dragon. They incased them quickly, allowing for no escape. Sparks flew from the circles, causing the dragons to scream as they hit their scales, soon neither dragon was able to move. Removing the threat for a while, Emiri took down the earth and wind shield.

"Quickly everyone into the pond," she ordered.

"What! Why not towards the cave?" Syaoran asked.

"It's too far," Fai answered before Emiri could open her mouth. "This kind of spell won't last very long, will it?" Fai said with a smile, looking towards her. Emiri nodded her head in the affirmative.

"So why the pond?" Kurogane asked. "How are we supposed to escape in there?" he said pointing towards the pond.

"You'll see just hurry up, we don't have much time anymore," Emiri said and with that, she was off to the pond with the others trailing behind her in confusion. They could here the growls of the dragons, which were now able to move slightly as the spell wore off.

As they got to the pond, the group realized that, it wasn't a pond, but more of a deep cave, leading into the depths of the earth, completely filled with water.

"Hurry up and jump in, before they brake free," but just as Emiri said that, the red dragon broke free from one of the circles, and with one broken, the others followed. It was fully free in a matter of seconds, the blue one still struggling.

"There's no time to explain just do as I say!" Emiri shouted. Using her staff yet again, shining a silver-grey color with a whirlwind effect decorating it, she lifted up a large boulder from the ground and brought it towards them.

Seeing the dragon coming closer, they decided to listen to Emiri, took deep breaths, and dived into the dark abyss that was the 'pond.' Waiting for every one to jump in, Emiri didn't notice the dragon coming upon her. At the last second, while every one was already in the water, she thrust out her staff, sending a powerful gust of wind towards the dragon, lifting it from the ground and sending it hurtling towards the opposite wall, while she still held the boulder. The effort made her breath deeply.

She jumped in after the rest of the group and placed the boulder over the opening, sealing it shut with magic so that not even the dragons would be able to move it. The boulder blocked off the rest of the feeble light from the cave and shrouded them once again in a darkness.

_What a great start to a day_, Emiri thought, making her staff glow again as she first did when they entered the Mazic Caverns. She turned around to see each member of the group, holding their breaths. Some of their faces were starting to turn blue.

_Yikes_, Emiri thought.

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A/N

/Looks shyly at audience with pointer finger to mouth/ likey? lol I hope you did, this chapter was actually a lot of fun to write. Not too sure about the ending though, I would have liked to do it differently, but I couldn't think of anything! lol So please review and tell me what you think! Remember, constructive criticism is very good and I enjoy all of your comments. Please tell me if I made a mistake anywhere and I'll do my best to fix it quickly. Also, I've been thinking ... is there such thing as too much detail and am I doing it? Please tell me and I'll try toning it down a bit! lol


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Tsubasa Chronicles ... (why do we have to do this for EVERY chapter, all it does is make me depressed!)

_**Tainted Memories**_

_Chapter 6:_

_Emiri sweat dropped at seeing the group's distress. __Oops, _she thought sheepishly, _I forgot they can't breathe under water._ Before they could suffer any longer, Emiri swiftly swam to them, her staff held in front of her, glowing blue. She lightly tapped each of them on the head but they still held their breaths, on the verge of suffocating themselves. Emiri sighed.

"You guys can breathe now," she said in exasperation, rolling her eyes. She found it quite amusing to see each of their reactions.

Fai took it the best. He just exhaled, and inhaled deeply before continuing regularly. Syaoran and Sakura were both bent down with their hand on there knees, trying to catch their breath.

"Are you … alright … Sakura?" Syaoran asked, taking deep breaths between each pause.

"Yes," Sakura said, still breathing deeply. Kurogane had the best reaction … errr … performance, to display.

"YOU IDIOT, WHAT THE HELL WAS THE POINT OF BRINGING US DOWN HERE? JUST TO ALMOST GET DROWNED? AND NOW, WE END UP IN **ANOTHER **DARK TUNNEL THAT LEADS TO WHO KNOWS WHERE!" Kurogane yelled, swimming towards Emiri, fist held above his head and cape flaring behind him.

"Hyuuuuuuuu! Mokona can swim, Mokona can swim! Swim, swim, swim, swim …" Mokona sang as he glided by Emiri, completely oblivious to what was happening. Before the white manju knew what was going on, he was being held up in front of Emiri's face, with Kurogane's fist inches away.

"Eeeeeep!" Mokona squealed. "Fai," he called. Fai was too busy looking around to pay any attention and Syaoran was too busy making sure Sakura was okay to notice anything.

"Hahahahaha, do you really think that I won't hit you just because you have that white thing protecting you," Kurogane said, his hand to his head, still laughing.

"You mean you'd actually hurt this cute little thing, this weak, defenseless, little," Emiri paused, "what exactly **are** you?" She asked, getting off topic.

"Mokona Modoki is Mokona!" The white creature said, smiling up at Emiri. Kurogane, not liking to be ignored, had a vein popping out of his head. His hand was already bawled up into a fist and was about to strike, Mokona or not, when his targets disappeared. He looked around in confusion when all he felt when he through his arm out was water. He opened and closed his hand in front of his face several times, trying to figure out what went wrong.

"Kuro-rin, it's not nice to hit people," Fai said from Kurogane's left. Kurogane started growling and when he turned to his left, he saw Fai with his hand draped across Emiri's shoulder and bending down so his face was inches from Emiri's neck. Emiri was still holding Mokona in front of her with wide eyes at being able to feel Fai's breath on her neck. She had to fight down the urge to blush, and just barely succeeded.

"DON'T INTERFERE, MAGE!" Kurogane yelled at Fai who was smiling lazily at him. Kurogane continued to growl with two veins now popping out of his forehead.

"Now, now Kuro-pin, no need to get angry," Fai said, now hiding behind Emiri with one finger in the air as he spoke to Kurogane in a matter-of-fact voice.

"Hey, don't hide behind me! He wants to hurt me too!" Emiri said in outrage, now forgetting her shyness with Fai. He just looked up at her with a smile that made Emiri forget why she was mad. Kurogane, on the other hand, was getting pissed and was now swimming over to them.

"Oh, oh," Emiri said.

"What?" Fai asked as he stood up just far enough to see across Emiri's shoulder. They both, involuntarily, took a step back. Kurogane was standing menacingly above them with an evil glint in his eyes. His fist was ready to punch something, namely them, and his teeth hand become as sharp as the dragons' they had just fought mere minutes ago.

"Swim," was the singly word uttered by Emiri as Kurogane fist came down upon them, again hitting nothing but water, as both prey escaped once again.

"Yay! Mokona's swimming! Swimming, swimming, swimming, swimming!" The little white creature sang as he swum just a little in front of Emiri and Fai, trying to escape Kurogane's wrath.

"STOP MOVING AROUND SO I CAN CUT YOU UP INTO LITTLE PIECES!" Kurogane yelled, still chasing after them.

"Ummm," Syaoran spoke up. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to face him. "How can we breathe under water?" he asked, looking towards Emiri who was still in mid stride along with Fai and Mokona. Kurogane had forgotten his anger at Syaoran's question and turned once again to Emiri.

"The same way we first got into the cavern, the same way we stopped the dragons, and the same way that boulder is blocking or exit," Emiri said, pointing up to the large rock. Each group member's face lit up in recognition of what she was talking about.

"So you used your magic again?" Kurogane asked.

"Way to state the obvious," Emiri spoke back.

"Why, you little bi…" Kurogane started, before he was interrupted once again, this time by Sakura.

"So how do we get out, if you said that the boulder is blocking our exit?" Sakura asked. Emiri smiled softly at her.

"This isn't the only exit from here. Sorry to say that we'll be traveling under water for a while but it should only take us a few hours to get through here until we come to another exit. If I remember correctly, this should bring us back up to the surface to Tremalk Lake, which is located in the middle of the Star Field," Emiri said. "Come, I'll explain more as we go, but if we want to get out of here before the sun sets on the outside world, we should get moving now."

"What are the star fields?" Syaoran asked as they started swimming down into the depths, with only Emiri's staff as light to guide them.

"The Star Field is basically a wide open plane that, during the night, will let you see the stars better than any other place in this world. They aren't traveled to by many as it's very difficult to get in and out. Despite the beauty of it, bordering the outer area, leading out into the rest of the world, there are many natural phenomenon's that prevent people from entering or leaving. Only a few are able to get through them." Emiri explained. "You can see for yourself once we reach them."

"What are all of these things on the walls?" Fai asked, enraptured by the magnificent art work that adorned every inch of the cave wall. Syaoran immediately looked to see what Fai was talking about and found himself gawking at it. Everyone took a look.

"These caverns were once home to an ancient civilization," Emiri said solemnly. At this, Syaoran perked up. Emiri noticed this and asked if he was interested in history.

"I am," he said. "Being able to see something that nobody, or only a few, have the chance to see brings me great joy." His face held the excitement of a child about to get what they always dreamed of. This made Emiri smile.

"It's very nice to see someone so interested in it. I take it you will take great pleasure in knowing that we are probably the first in millions of years to see these," Emiri said, laughing at the look of wonder on Syaoran's face. She allowed her staff to glow brighter so that they could get a closer look.

Carvings covered every inch of the wall, some showing signs of color, or what was once color. It had been washed away by the current long ago and many carvings that were once sharp and accurate were now smooth, being eroded away. They seemed to show great scenes of battles and some of everyday life. There was one that seemed to be in the same condition as it was when it was first carved, colors and everything. It was of a bunch of people running towards a room. The room held a large circle in the middle and there was a child in the center. The child's face was chipped away, head bent down, a tear could be scene falling to the floor …

"_Why must I go?" the child asked. _Fai's eyes went wide and his pupils shrunk. He new that child, it was the same child from his dream. He looked around to see if any of the others heard. They were all still paying attention to Emiri. Fai held his head.

_The boy had light blond hair that fell from all angles across his head. He had wide, innocent, sapphire eyes and had tears falling down his cheeks. He wore nothing more than rags. His shirt was made of the cheapest material and was a dirty brown color, ripped in multiple places. His pants barely managed to make it past his knees before the ends were torn away. He had on no shoes and his feet were blistered and cut up from the rough ground._

"_Why must I go?" the boy asked again. All of the adults were either ignoring him or busy doing something else. _

"_Why must I go!" the boy asked a third time. This time, a large man came up to him and slapped him in the face._

"_Shut up, boy. You will do as we say!" The man shouted into the boy's young, crying, face. His hand was held to his cheeks trying, feebly, to stop the stinging he felt where the man had stricken him. He was too terrified to speak anymore and kept his quivering mouth shut tightly. _

"_You will leave this world and not return. You're purpose will not come for many long millennia and by then, another will have been born. You have no use here," Another man came over and kicked the child to the floor. Each man wore the same uniform. It was a dark blue cloak with the hoods up so that the boy couldn't see their faces. Along the neckline of the cloaks, small, dark purple jewels were adorned that shined with their own inner light. _

_They all laughed at him while walking away, leaving the small boy to curl up into a little ball and cry. Nobody heard his sniffling, or just decided to ignore it, as everyone was working on something else. Soon, a man came over and picked the boy up._

"_It's time to go, kid," the man said as he picked the boy up by his arm and dragged him to some type of machine. The boy kept thrashing trying to get away. He almost succeeded when he got the man to loosen the grip on his arm, but instead, the man latched onto his shirt, completely tarring it off. The boy fell to the ground, giving the man a chance to grab him by the arm again, this time, griping him harder. After grumbling to himself along the way, he shoved the boy into a small chair in the center and used some kind of leather attachments to secure him in. The boy struggled to get out, but soon found that it was pointless. The leather belts were digging into his skin each time he moved and forced him to stop after a while. _

"_What is this?" The boy asked, terrified. The man in front of him laughed._

"_You'll see boy, you'll see, if you remember that is," the man continued to laugh; the boy stared in terror at the wires they placed along his head, face and chest. _

"_Is everything set?" the man, still standing in front of him asked, apparently the leader._

"_Yes sir, ready for your order," a man at another machine with many buttons spoke. The room was rectangular in shape and was made of rough granite material. It had no artwork adorning it and looked more like a dungeon than anything else, minus the bars. It had multiple machines attached all along the walls. _

"_Alright, each person to you're station," the man said. As told, each person in the room went to their previously assigned station, many containing large screens with formulas already written on them. Once everyone settled, only the leader, next to the boy, was standing in the room, every other person was sitting and preparing the machines._

"_We're all ready to go, sir," another person, this one female, said._

"_Alright, you all no how this is going to work, so on my mark, get ready," the leader spoke in a loud voice. All the boy could do was stare on in terror, he did not know what was going to happen and wasn't sure he wanted to. Tears were still streaming down his face._

"_I don't want to go!" The boy yelled, though it came out more of a whisper that nobody heard._

"_Go," the man said and instantly everyone started pressing buttons and within a few seconds each person was calling out._

"_Ready."_

"_Ready."_

"_Ready."_

"_Ready."_

_The leader gave a signal to the only female to continue once everything was set. She did so without hesitation. _

"_NO, LET ME GO, LET ME GO!" The boy screamed, but nobody would come. He kept thrashing as something unseen seemed to torment him, small static sparks sometimes came out of some of the wires attached to the boy's form. The leather bindings were cutting into the boy's skin, but he paid no attention to the physical pain, already dealing with a much greater pain within his head._

_The boy felt as if his head was being smashed by a hammer. He could feel something going in and probing through his thoughts. One by one, his thoughts were disappearing. Who was he? Where did he come from? Did he have parents? The only thing that wasn't taken from him was his name. Before he could think it, darkness engulfed him and he thought no more._

_As the machine finally finished its grueling task, the boy had numerous cuts and gashes all along his body from the leather bindings still attached to him. _

"_It is complete sir. The boy is ready to be sent,__" the woman spoke._

"_Excellent, let us not waste any time," the leader said. He forcefully ripped off the leather straps and yanked the boy off of the chair, bringing him to a circle on the floor decorated in moons, suns and many other intricate patterns that signified magic. As the man dragged him to the circle, again by the arm, a large tattoo could be seen attached to his form all across his back and circling around his small body to his arms. It took the shape of a phoenix. When one of the workers asked about it, the leader explained briefly._

"_It is to keep what he has lost suppressed."_

_As soon as the boy was sent in the center, still unconscious, four people, mages, came and stood in different areas along the circle's circumference. _

"_Commence," the leader commanded. The people obeyed instantly and raised their staffs that shined the brightest red with many black specks within. They started chanting unintelligible words and soon, a glob of time and space surrounded the boy. As the people around the circle kept chanting, the ripped matter enclosed on the boy's form and shrank into nothing. _

"_He is finally gone from this world," one of the mages said._

"_Do you know where?" The man asked._

"_That is impossible to tell," another mage said. "What is known for sure is that he is gone." Now that everything was over, each person started walking out of the room. The woman started talking to the person beside her as they both walked out. Each person still had their hoods up._

"_That boy is finally gone," she said to the man._

"_Yes, now we can forget about him and lead our normal lives again," the man responded._

"_Do you know what his name was?" the woman asked. The man snorted._

"_Who the hell cares, he is nothing," the man said. The woman sighed._

"_Yes, I no, but he was still one of us," she argued. The man sighed as well._

"_Why you want to know this, I have no idea. It must be one of those female __**things**__," he paused. The woman kept looking at him. After some contemplation, he continued. "His name was Fai."_

"Fai?" Mokona called. Fai broke out of his reverie a little shaken._ What __**was **__that?_ He thought.

"Fai?" Syaoran asked coming near him with Kurogane trailing behind him. Emiri and Sakura were standing off near the wall, Emiri having finished her description of the event. When Fai still didn't respond, Kurogane stepped in.

"Mage, answer us," Kurogane said forcefully, punching him in the arm. This brought Fai out of his faze with a shock. He stiffened after the hit before realizing who had done it.

"What happened?" Fai asked.

"You spaced out," Mokona answered, now sitting on Fai's shoulder with his paw to Fai's forehead. "Are you okay?" he asked. Fai hesitated before answering.

"Yes, I'm fine, just thinking," he said blowing it off and putting on a smile. This smile, unlike the rest was much more forced, but everyone let it go, thinking it was just something about his past that he wouldn't share. Emiri looked at him funny but was forced to give Syaoran her attention.

"So, can you tell us anything about the ancient people?" Syaoran asked now right beside her.

"I'll continue as we go," she said, giving Fai another look. He was back in his own world, only following them out of instinct. She decided to question him about it later when they rested. _I believe he's going to want to use the Retimees for more than that dream now, _she thought as she continued to lead the group, about to start explaining about who had lived in these caverns long ago.

_Why do I keep having these visions? _Fai asked himself as his body moved on its own accord to follow the rest of the group. _They had called that boy Fai, could that have been me? _He thought, but quickly dismissed it. _It can't be, I wouldn't have forgotten something like that, _he tried to reason with himself, but there was always that doubt that lay barely suppressed in the back of his mind. _What did that machine do? I could almost feel what it was doing, but can I be sure? Did it really suppress his memories?_ Fai couldn't be sure, it happened too fast. One thing he knew for sure was that there was **something **that connected him to this world. The only problem, was finding out what.

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A/N

Ok I think I will not tell you to "not expect another chapter soon!" It's actually really funny cause when I say that it's like there isn't any pressure to actually get it out so I actually write a lot more comfortably and more often! I actually finished this one in ONE DAY! That's definately a record! It usually takes me a few days. I was going to wait till Friday to get this chapter up but thanks to a dear friend of mine living in the US (you know who you are) she has convinced me to get it up earlier. So I hope all of you enjoy it and please review!

BTW the next chapter will be up when the next chapter is up! I'm not saying anything more from now on! lol It seems each time I say something like last chapter, the update just gets faster! lol

P.S. The sight is giving me some problems uploading this chapter. Mstakes keep appearing that weren't there when I editied it, so please ignore them. This is my third attempt and hopefully it works but I won't try again! I might, in a few days, replace it with the same thing if I see anything else wrong but I can't do anything about it now! So sorry!


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own Tsubasa Chronicles, I don't think I ever will either. Weeps.

**Tainted Memories**

Chapter 7:

"Back in ancient times, the Dracian people lived in the Mazic Caverns. They built great cities within the mountains and were very advanced for their time. Though not like us today. They were the first people to inhabit the planet, or so it's thought. They also were the first to use magic. They in turn taught the rest of the people, later on, how to use it. When they were destroyed, the magic they had taught the people on the outside world advanced very quickly and is still," Emiri explained as they continued swimming. It had been a while now and, instead of swimming down, they had come to the bottom and found a path leading straight. There were a series of tunnels and it took only moments for Emiri to decide which one to take each time.

"How were they destroyed?" Syaoran asked, hanging onto Emiri's every word.

"Nobody really knows that much about the incident. All we know is that one day, the mountain and caverns collapsed, killing all those in it. Some believe that there was an earthquake, but others think it was something else. Something that the Dracian's were hiding, but no one knows what," Emiri said.

"How did this path come to fill up with water if it was once part of the mountain?" Sakura asked. Kurogane was off to the side pretending not to pay attention with Mokona hanging onto his head.

"The Dracian people had water ways spreading throughout the caverns from Tremalk Lake. When the mountain collapsed, everything was destroyed. Some tunnels completely caved in on themselves while other made way for new paths. My guess is that this path once held one of the water ways and when a part of it collapsed, it made a barrier that the water couldn't escape through and so now it is flooded," Emiri said.

They soon came to another fork in the path and it took Emiri a little longer to figure out which way to go.

"What's wrong?" Kurogane asked. "Don't you know which way to go?"

"It's different from what I remember in the maps. There must have been another small cave in and so now the paths are all screwed up. This might take a while," Emiri said. "You guys might as well take a little break; I'm going to have to see if I can read these inscriptions on the wall. They might give us a clue as to which way to go."

Everyone sighed and decided to sink to the bottom of the path. Kurogane had his legs crossed over each other with Mokona sitting in them talking nonsense to Kurogane who was slowly loosing his patience. Sakura had immediately fallen asleep on the floor with her back against the wall and Syaoran was inspecting the ruins on the walls.

Fai was still in his own little world. Each time someone would talk to him he wouldn't seem to here them until they tapped him or yelled in his ears. After a while they let him be, deciding that when he was ready he'd revert back to his normal self. Emiri was still working on deciphering the ruins along the cave walls, sometimes mumbling to herself.

_What is wrong with me? _Fai asked himself. _That tattoo … it's impossible._ He struggled with his thoughts. _Nothing seems right anymore. What is this feeling I have? I felt it the second we came into this world. Am I connected somehow? But why? How? _For some reason, he couldn't get his thoughts straight. For the first time in his life, he didn't know what to do. _Emiri. Why do I feel that I can relate to you somehow? Who are you?_ Their meeting couldn't have been a coincidence. There was something about her that he couldn't figure out, something different, and yet, familiar. Emiri's voice broke him out of his reverie.

"Ah ha! Found it," she said triumphantly, punching a fist above her head. "This way," she said pointing to the path on her right.

"Took you long enough," Kurogane said smirking as he got up.

"Excuse me? What did you say, Kuro-puu?" She said tauntingly.

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Kurogane screamed at her.

"Whatever you say … Kuro-puu," Emiri laughed at the look of sheer anger on his face. Kurogane started growling. Fai, noticing all of the commotion, and finally starting acting like his usual self, aiding Emiri with her taunting of Kurogane, one of his favorite pass times.

"Now, now, Kuro-puppy, you really shouldn't get mad so often. I don't think your face could take the strain," Fai said coming to stand by Emiri who looked up at him smiling.

"DON'T TREAT ME LIKE A DOG!" Kurogane yelled back, his hand inches from his sword and still growling. Sakura had already woken up the first time Kurogane yelled and was staring on in confusion. Syaoran was filling her in with Mokona adding his little bit.

"Well, that's kind of hard considering you really do sound like one right now," Emiri added in laughing. Fai and Emiri soon stopped laughing when they saw the murderous intent in Kurogane's eyes.

"Umm, Fai, do you think we went a little too far?" Emiri spoke into his ear, standing on her toes to reach.

"No," Fai said. "I don't think Kuro-puppy would harm us."

"OH YEAH, WE'LL SEE ABOUT THAT!" Kurogane said as he started swimming towards them.

"Hyuu, maybe I was wrong?" Fai said, shrugging his shoulders before swimming off in another direction, away from Kurogane. Emiri did the same thing, missing Kurogane's punch by mere centimeters. Syaoran and Sakura followed them at a more reasonable pace as they kept swimming down the path Emiri had previously pointed to.

After a while of chasing, Kurogane finally got bored and decided to just give up saying that it wasn't worth his effort. Emiri just rolled her eyes and kept on swimming. It was still pitch black in the tunnel and without Emiri's staff's light they would have been lost long ago.

"Ahhhhhhhh!" Sakura screamed. Syaoran was immediately on guard, looking around him.

"What happened?" Emiri asked, coming up to them.

"I just felt something move across my leg," Sakura said fearfully. Emiri's staff shined brighter and she moved around trying to see what it was. Her shoulders sagged a bit when she found what it was and started laughing.

"What was it?" Kurogane asked coming towards her, but immediately took a step back.

"What the hell is that thing?" he asked in astonishment.

"You've never seen a manta ray before?" Emiri asked. She laughed at the confused look on everyone face. "Well I guess not, seeing as you come from different worlds. Don't worry, they're harmless unless we bug them too much. You can come and touch it if you want."

She laughed again at their expressions. "Lighten up, this is a very good sign since it means that we're close to the surface now."

"How could that be?" Syaoran asked. "At first we swam down, away from the surface, than we went straight. Shouldn't we be a lot farther?"

"It's very subtle but the land is ascending just a fraction. It's hard to notice and it makes you think you are going straight, but soon you'll see the reefs where these guys live," she said lightly touching the manta ray on it's back before it quickly swam away. "Come on, we're almost there," she said in excitement.

"You seem eager to get out of here," Kurogane said. "I thought you said you liked the dark," he continued, smirking.

"I do," she said, "but only if I feel like it." She laughed at Kurogane's expression.

"Women," Kurogane said, sighing. He didn't comment any further.

Soon they reached an end to their path with a cave above them that ran straight up. They quickly made their way up, all hoping that this would be the end of their underwater trek. They soon came out of the long tunnel and found themselves in a wide open space.

"Welcome to Tremalk Lake," Emiri said cheerfully, taking delight in swimming about.

"Why can't we see any light?" Syaoran asked.

"This lake is very deep and light doesn't reach this far down," Emiri explained looking up with her hand on her brow. "Come, once we swim up a bit, you'll be able to see the sun, if it isn't night anyway." With that Emiri led them up towards the surface of the water, which they still could not see. Within a few minutes though, they could see dark shapes swimming around them. Sakura went closer to Syaoran.

"Don't worry, they're just fish. They won't do us any harm," Emiri chuckled, reaching out a hand to stroke a large fish that swam by her. The fish immediately swam away.

"What are those things along the walls?" Kurogane asked, motioning to the tangle of what looked like rocks along the surface of the side.

"Those are coral reefs," Emiri explained. "They're usually found in salt water in the oceans, but for some reason, they grow here as well."

They looked in awe at the coral. They shone dully with the light of Emiri's staff. They were a mixture of all different colors that when combined, as they were, created a mosaic that caught the eye. Fai swam closer to them with Mokona behind him.

"Mokona remembers Yuuko showing pictures of these to Mokona," Mokona put in while Fai studied them. Intrigued by one flower looking plant, he touched it and it immediately caved in on itself.

"Hyuuuu!" Fai said. Emiri smiled at the look of wonder on his face.

"Okay, okay, that's enough. I don't know about you but I would actually like to get out of here now," Emiri said in a tone somewhere between annoyance and a joking manner. As they continued their way up to the surface, a small amount of light reached them and Emiri let her staff dull until finally it went out. They could see the yellow and orange colors above them that signaled sunset.

They could now make out the fish that kept swimming by them. A school of small orange fish swam around them, making Sakura giggle and Syaoran smile. There were other fish as well that came by to check out their visitors. One large one started nudging Kurogane, and pretty soon he was being pushed around by it. Emiri laughed.

"STUPID FISH! GET THE HELL AWAY!" Kurogane yelled trying to strike the fish, but it was too fast. Emiri laughed again.

"Calm down, it's only playing with you," Emiri said, though it didn't stop Kurogane from trying to kill it. He continued to growl as he kept on missing.

"When are we finally going to get out of here?" Kurogane strained his voice, trying not to scream. He looked like he was about to pull out his hair.

"Well if you stopped fighting with the fish, then we could start moving again," Emiri tauntingly sang. All she got in reply was a growling sound and Kurogane swimming ahead of her. The rest followed.

Within the next few minutes, they continued to see a strengthening in the light, and soon after, they felt fresh air hit their faces as they broke the surface.

"So pretty," Sakura said, commenting on the beauty that surrounded them.

They were near the edge of a large lake that was in the center of a grand field full of blooming flowers and a few, small trees scattered around. The sky above them was painted purple, blue, yellow and red layers that covered the entire field with its brilliance. The sun was just setting over the tall, snow topped, mountains that surrounded the isolated field and the moon was just starting to show itself after its slumber. They swam to the bank, eager to get out of the water and dry off.

"Everyone, come here please," Emiri asked once everyone was out of the water, drenched. They made squishing noises in the short grass as they made their way over to her, leaving small puddles that were soaked up by the ground. When they were all near her, she walked by each of them, raising her arms and muttering a few words that seemed to be just out of their hearing range. In a few minutes, every ones clothes were completely dry and they all started searching around.

Sakura led Syaoran over to the small expanse of flowers, having him sit down while she made him a flower crown. Syaoran had a distant look on his face, as if remembering something of his past. When he came back from his vision, he held a sad expression, but quickly covered it when Sakura started speaking to him.

Kurogane found himself a small tree, a little distance off, by the lake side where he contentedly sat and looked out over the water. Mokona soon joined him, to Kurogane's annoyance, but when the white creature stayed quiet for once, he relaxed. Mokona almost immediately fell asleep.

Emiri found a spot right on the bank of the lake and sat down looking at the sun set that reflected in the water before her. Fai came and sat next to her, his hands behind him holding his upper body up and his legs sprawled out in front of him. Emiri looked at him quizzically.

"Everyone has someone with them, so I thought we could keep each other company," Fai answered her unasked question smiling. Emiri smiled back, but soon found his eyes to be too intense and looked out onto the water again. She could see the feint, dark, outlines of the reefs from where she sat. She could still feel him looking at her, making her squirm under his gaze. It was like he was assessing her.

_Why is he staring at me? _She asked herself. _He couldn't know, could he? Oh no, what if it was in his dreams! Then what, oh please don't let him know, I don't want any of them to know. _His gaze was starting to screw with her head, and thankfully, he tore his eyes away from her and onto the setting sun. She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

"It's peaceful," Fai commented. Emiri jumped at the unexpected remark. She looked towards him. Something was bothering him and as the sun was just barely visible over the tops of the mountain, Emiri could see the far away look in his eyes.

"It is," was the only thing she could say. He gave off a calming presence at that moment that made Emiri's muscles relax. All her earlier thoughts were abandoned. The sun had now set and darkness dawned. This darkness was different though. It was calm and not complete. The stars came out above them and they now new why this place was called Star Field.

All along the sky, millions upon millions of stars could be seen, glimmering like fireflies in the heavens. Many of them were in clusters across the sky, kind of creating a pattern of dark and light. Emiri chuckled lightly and Fai turned to her. Noticing the look on his face, Emiri explained her thoughts.

"Do you see how many are in clusters?" She asked pointing to them as she spoke. Fai nodded. "Well then, can you also notice how the ones in clusters are much duller than the ones in the darkness?" At another nod, she continued. "Well it makes you think, doesn't it? It's kind of like life. Light shines brighter in darker places. So, even if you're placed against many perils, as long as you keep hope, then you can push the darkness back just with your own light, even if it is easier with more." _Wow, that sounded cheesy, when did I start getting sentimental? _Emiri asked herself.

Fai looked out onto the lake once more, digesting what Emiri had said. _She's right, _he thought. He looked back at her and noticed she was sprawled out on the ground with her hands pillowing her head. Fai joined her in the same position, enjoying the site of the stars that blanketed them. He could hear the soft rhythm of crickets singing and the last few notes of the birds as they fell asleep. He looked around to the others who had now fallen asleep under the comforting sky. Emiri, knowing what he was doing sat up.

"Do you want to do it now?" She asked him. He looked at her, and then at the rest of his group, who were all sleeping soundlessly. A nod of the head was all Emiri needed before she through her cloak to the side and reached down into a pocket near her ankle.

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A/N

Yay, I didn't think I could update today but I just did it! I hope you guys enjoy this, I'm not too sure about it. Please tell me truthfully what you think cause I'm thinking that I might revise this chapter a little later ... maybe. Anyway I'm going to try to get the next one out by next week to, I don't like waiting more but school starts next week and I've got a lot of hard subjects first semester so ... we'll see! I'll do my best if you guys review because it always makes me want to write!


	8. Chapter 8

Diclaimer: I own nothing of Tsubasa Chronicles ... but come this years anime north and I'm so buying a little stuffed Fai ... or something! lol

**Tainted Memories**

Chapter 8:

Emiri's hand came out with the Retimees swirling majestically just like the universe it symbolized and contained. As Emiri looked into Fai's eyes, she saw a small dark light pass through them, but was instantly gone_. Was it fear?_ She thought.

"Are you sure you want to?" She asked once more before starting. She received another nod of his head and strong eyes, ready to face whatever came. Emiri sighed and closed her eyes before holding out the Retimees to Fai. He looked at it and tilted his head in confusion, his short, blond hair falling to one side and partially covering his face.

"You're the one who wants to find something about yourself. You should be the one to do it. I'll help you interpret it," she said. Without a word, Fai took the Retimees in his hand, marveling at the feeling. It felt like he was holding something and yet nothing, with a few bumps as asteroids and comets hit the palm of his hand.

"What do I do now?" he asked.

"The same thing I did. Shake it five times up and down, and five times side to side," she said while clearing a spot in front of him. As he was told, Fai shook it five times each way and then spilled the stars out onto the ground that Emiri had cleared. As soon as the stars hit the rough earth, the Remthise appeared glowing, contrasting with the dark ground.

Fai concentrated hard on his dream. He could see clearly the clawed hand that had tried to take the child back to where ever he came from. He could see Ashura waiting for the child in a corner of the room. He concentrated on the vision he had seen earlier that day, the most prominent being the phoenix tattoo on the boys back as he was dragged towards a circle, the mages along the circumference. He opened his eyes and saw that all of the pieces were in place, not one star out of the circle.

"Yummy dumplings!" A voice said a little ways off. Fai sharply turned his head in the direction only to see Mokona on Kurogane's knee mumbling in his sleep. Kurogane wasn't even stirring. Fai looked towards Sakura, with Syaoran close by, both sleeping peacefully without a sound. Then he turned to Emiri who was looking down in concentration at the Remthise.

"That's really odd," she mumbled.

"What is?" Fai asked.

"Not one of the stars is out of the circle. This has never happened to me before, I wonder what it may mean," she thought out loud.

Fai took a closer look and noticed that she was right, all of the stars were in the circle. He wondered if this could be a prediction about his dream. He didn't know, but the only way to find out would be to try and read it. Emiri was still thinking about the odd happening, so Fai decided to start trying to decipher what the meaning was behind the arrangement of the stars.

The first thing he noticed was the black star, stationed right in the center of the sun with the purple and grey stars circling it. He already knew the black star symbolized darkness and sometimes death. The green star, he remembered signified durability and the purple temptation. Why those two were circling the black one he didn't know and wasn't sure why they were placed right in the center of the sun. He asked Emiri what it could mean.

"It most likely means that someone with a pure heart will be tainted by the dark; the darkness within the light. The green and purple surrounding it aid the darkness. Through temptation and the durability of the darkness, the pure ones will be tainted," she said. "Look, the blue star is right next to the sun and isn't shaking. That's odd," she continued. "It just like the last prediction, it's in the exact same place."

"Do you think this is something to do with you?" Fai asked.

"I don't know," she responded, mentally scolding herself and hoping Fai didn't catch her little confession, "there are some things that are similar but, there's know way to tell, especially if this is predicting the future. Now that the blue star isn't shaking, I'm guessing that it would probably mean that whoever the person is, is giving into the warmth and their heart is slowly thawing." She stopped here and had a far away look in her eyes that took another statement from Fai to break her out of it.

"What about the dark green one near the moon?" Fai asked. "What could that mean?" Emiri looked over to where he was pointing.

"Ok, umm," she stuttered. "Well, dark green stands for bitterness, I'd think that it was referring to the same person as the blue star. Because it's near the moon, it is well hidden and may only appear at certain times, just like the moon waxes and wanes. The pink star is also very near the dark green one, so that means that more emotion is mixed into the bitterness, I guess a love or caring for someone is helping in pushing the bitterness away or, it may be causing it.

"The orange star," she continued, "is close to the black hole in the center. This could mean one of two things. It could mean that the warmth that someone was, is, or will feel, is being slowly pulled into the black whole where it will be no more, or that it is resisting its destruction. It's hard to tell because it's not moving."

"The yellow star means tranquility, right?" Fai asked.

"Yes is does," Emiri answered.

"So would that mean that, since the yellow star is in the middle of chaotic darkness, that there is also tranquility is the storm?" he asked, pointing to where the yellow star was situated, right in the center of a storm of darkness within the Remthise. Emiri looked to where he was pointing and nodded her head in the affirmative.

"That's right," she said, "You're getting the hang of it. But there is also more to it because the white and," she paused. "That can't be," she spoke.

"What?" Fai asked.

"There are two new stars," she said in wonderment. "That can't be right, there are never more stars," she said in bafflement.

"So what does it mean?" Fai asked again.

"I don't know, I've never seen those colors before," she said. One color was a dark red, _no, _Emiri thought, _it's has too much brown in it to be a red one, so … Mahogany? Yes, mahogany. _The other one was brown but had green swirls running through it. "The white one we know signifies hope and light, so that could mean that within the darkness there is also light which is probably causing the tranquility to be there as well."

"How can you find out what the other two mean?" Fai questioned. Without answering, Emiri placed her right hand over the mahogany and the brown-green swirl stars and closed her eyes. A faint white light engulfed her hand which turned color within a few seconds to a rich mahogany.

"The mahogany star symbolizes a will to fight," she said, still concentrating on her task. The light around her hand again changed color into a brown with green swirling around it and Emiri spoke again. "This other one symbolizes resolve," she said as the light vanished from her hand and she slouched a little as if tired.

"Well that's quite easy to read," Fai said. The person obviously has both of those and with the tranquility and light, it would be hard to stop them."

"Yes, that's probably it," Emiri said. _This is a very strange reading, _she thought. _This can't be just one person, so what is it? Is it the past, the future, or even the present? _Thoughts kept running through her head, scrambling together so that she was only half listening to what Fai was saying. _Wait, _her thoughts paused. _Fai's talking to me._

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" asked Emiri, taking notice of Fai trying to get her attention.

"The ones in the middle, what do they mean?" he repeated. Emiri looked into the black oblivion of the whole, and sat in contemplation for a few minutes deciphering the meaning. At last she spoke.

"So we have the red, brown and green stars in the black whole," she started. "The red, as you know could symbolize either life or death, while the brown symbolizes strength, and the green durability. It is an odd combination, so I can't be sure of what it means. Maybe it is that the strength and durability of one person could bring upon death to many, or instead it could bring upon life, or already has," she sighed. "This is a very confusing reading, never have all of the stars, plus two new ones, been in the circle at once." Emiri then gathered up all of the stars and placed them back into the Retimees.

Fai was thinking over what they had predicted. _That didn't seem anything like my dream; could it be telling me more about it? Or is it something completely different, _he thought.

"We should get some sleep, we are a lot farther north now and the sun rises faster," Emiri said, lying down on the grass, arms folded beneath her head and pulling her cloak on top of her. Fai looked at her for a few moments before doing the same, instead, laying his large white and blue coat underneath him.

Emiri inwardly sighed, as she heard Fai lay down next to her. She moved so that her back was facing him. _I have a bad feeling about this, _she thought. She knew something was wrong with this group, she just didn't know what, but couldn't help feeling they were good. Things were so confusing, and on top of that, she still had to complete her mission. _I just really hope they don't find out, _she found herself thinking once again. For once in her life, Emiri had found some people, **friends **she dared to say, that weren't afraid of her. She was terrified that they would leave her, just like everyone else had. She wasn't alone, even for just a small portion of time, she felt like she could belong somewhere. She soon fell into a dreamless sleep, a loose smile on her face.

Fai was having a harder time getting to sleep. Thoughts kept plaguing him about what they had read. _Nothing seemed to fit anywhere, _he thought. It was as thought that reading wasn't just for him. _If that wasn't for me, then whose fortune was it? Is that boy really me? But it just couldn't be. I was born in Celes, not here. _With all of these confusing thoughts running through his head, it was at least a half hour before he slept, thoughts still roaming, but eyes too tired to stay open.

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"WHAT THE HELL!"

Emiri woke up with a start, eyes wide open and reaching for her staff. She looked around to see that Fai, Sakura, and Syaoran had all woken up and were just as confused as she was. The sun still hadn't come up, but the stars were starting to disappear, along with the moon. She looked towards the direction of the scream, and burst out laughing, along with Fai. Syaoran and Sakura just stood by and watched.

"I'M NOT A FREEKIN DUMPLING!" Kurogane screamed, Mokona's mouth attached to his head. The manju was still asleep even after Kurogane attempted to pull him off. "The stupid thing won't come off!" he kept yelling in despair. Emiri just continued laughing.

"Hyuuuu, Kuro-dumpling, you must taste really good," Fai said now standing up and walking towards him.

"Shut up, stupid mage, and the name's Kurogane!" he spoke between clenched teeth, a vein popping out of his forehead. Fai reached up and started trying to pull Mokona off.

"Hyuu, he must really like your taste," Fai said lightly laughing as he pulled harder. Kurogane chose to ignore that statement and was stationed to the ground, feet together, arms crossed over his chest and head leaning over to one side as Fai pulled. He had a somewhat bored expression on his face now, but was quickly replaced when Fai jerked a bit harder.

"Hey, watch it," he nearly yelled.

"He won't budge," Fai said.

"I can't believe he's still asleep," Emiri said in wonder, placing down her staff and lifting her cloak off her form, walking over to assist Fai. Together they pulled on the white manju with all of their strength, Kurogane fighting to stay upright, too proud to make any noise of discomfort.

"Dumpling!" Mokona cheered as he forced his mouth to open wider and take in more of Kurogane's head.

"Oh no," Emiri said, "We'll never get him off now."

"I'll help," Syaoran said coming over, and all three of them started pulling, but it seemed like Mokona wasn't going to let go of his favorite dumpling without a fight. After much pulling and yanking, they all gave up and dropped to the ground breathing hard. Kurogane also sat down, lightly grabbing Mokona's ears once in a while to test his hold, he held fast. All sat in silence as they tried to think of a way to pull the white bun off of Kurogane's head.

"Mokona," Sakura said. Everyone turned to her, except Kurogane, still trying to get Mokona off his head, no matter how futile the effort. Sakura was walking towards Kurogane and knelt down beside him, lightly tapping Mokona on the head. "Mokona, can you please wake up?" she asked, still poking him.

"Sakura!" Mokona yelled, letting go of Kurogane's head and jumping into Sakura's awaiting arms. Everyone looked at her, sweat-dropping and then fell to the ground.

"I can't believe it! She didn't even do anything, just asked him to wake up!" Emiri said in shock.

"Sakura has a gift," Syaoran said. Emiri looked at him attentively, telling him to continue

"She can just do things that a lot of other people can't."

"Okay," Emiri said, not really needing much more of an explanation. "Anyway, since we're all awake, we might as well get moving; it'll take us all day to reach the edge of the Star Field. We'll rest for the night before entering the Elemental Mountains." She said.

"What are those?" Sakura asked.

"Remember when I told you about those natural phenomena that prevented weaker people from traveling to and from the Star Fields?" Emiri asked. Getting nods of remembrance she continued. "Well, the sources of those phenomena are the Elemental Mountains. Nobody knows why, but for some reason, the areas in them are filled with some kind of elemental magic that can throw anything at you, whether it's a blizzard, a storm of fire or an earth wall, anything. It's the reason why barely anyone gets in or comes out alive after attempting to come in."

At the look of fear on many of their faces she laughed.

"Don't worry, you're with me and I've traveled through the mountains once before. So I'm pretty confident I know what I'm doing." She said.

"Are you sure?" Syaoran asked.

"Of course I am, and we also have our little guard dog to help us get out alive." She said smiling.

"Guard dog?" Sakura asked.

"Yup, would you like me to call him?" she received a nod from Sakura and everyone was looking at her intently, except Kurogane who was dipping his head in the lake trying to cleanse it of Mokona's mouth.

"Oh, Kuro-puppy, come here boy!" Emiri yelled, kneeling down and patting her knee, facing Kurogane. Everyone looked towards him at the exact moment he was shaking his head of water, looking exactly like the puppy Emiri had just called him.

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!" he screamed, walking towards her with deathly intent, all the while reaching for his sword, water still pouring down his face. She swore she could see steam coming of it. Emiri swallowed loudly.

"Uh oh."

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A/N

Ok, sorry for the long wait guys, it's been really hectic and I wasn't exactly sure how to do this chapter! I had about two pages completed for the longest time, and really didn't like it. So today, I erased about one and a half pages of it and competely re-did it! I hope you guys like it! I think it came out okay, but you guys are the critics, and you're opinion counts more than anything so please review and tell me what you think.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Tsubasa Chronicles, I just don't ahve the money for it. (sighes)

**Tainted Memories**

Chapter 9:

Every few seconds, a grunt of discomfort could be heard coming Kurogane's form.

"STOP POKING ME, STUPID MAGE!" he yelled raising a fist to Fai, who in turn, took a few steps back with both hands held in front of him and a large grin on his face. Kurogane was just barely able to hold the urge to punch that damn smile off his face.

"Does it hurt, Kuro-wuffy?" Asked Fai in, what sounded like, concern with an edge of humour.

"Don't call me that!" Kurogane said between clenched teeth, right before stopping Fai's finger, yet again, from poking the side of his head. Emiri was up in front of the group with Sakura and Syaoran in the middle and Kurogane and Fai taking the rear. Mokona sat on Fai's shoulder. Emiri could clearly remember the excitement of a half hour ago.

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"_Uh oh." Kurogane was coming towards her with a sinister aura surrounding him. She could see what looked like canine teeth jutting out from his lower jaw and vaguely wondered whether he really was part dog. Her thoughts were kept short as it was now time to run._

"…" _When no shout of outrage was heard following her she turned her head in confusion only to see that Kurogane had disappeared._

"_What the-" as she turned her head back she was forced to immediately duck; narrowly missing Kurogane's sharp blade. "Uhhh, I didn't mean it?" Emiri asked hopefully, trying to calm him down. All she got in return was a low growl, signalling her to get up and run for dear life; she paused. _Wait a sec, what **dear** life,_ she thought bitterly, but the bitterness was soon forgotten. Replaced by more pressing matters; dodging Kurogane's attacks. She knew he wouldn't seriously harm her (at least she was pretty sure), maybe rough her up a bit, but nothing else. It was just fun to provoke him. She had to hold down her smile._

"_Get back here and hold still!" Kurogane shouted from behind her running form. She had to quickly find somewhere to hide soon spotting a large tree to her left. It had a mildly thick trunk, big enough for her and Kurogane to run around it and still be a safe distance from each other. _Perfect, _she thought,_ maybe I could make him so dizzy that he won't be able to hold up his sword!_ She smiled at the genius of her plan, knowing full well it probably would work._

_She couldn't see any sign of the others, probably resting somewhere, but she wasn't worried. Kurogane started steadily gaining on her. She forced her legs to move faster all the while trying to keep her laughter in check. It was hard, what with Kurogane yelling obscenities right behind her. She finally made it to the base of the tree, and ran around to the other side to take a small break before Kurogane caught up with her. _

_As she moved around the tree and skid to a stop, she felt her foot hit something and came tumbling down. She expected to feel the harsh, rocky ground on impact, but instead fell on something a little more comfortable. She had closed her eyes as she fell and when she opened to see what she had landed on, the first thing that met her was white. She could also see a small part of a golden clasp that held a black strap. _What the hell? _She thought. _Isn't the ground supposed to be green or something?

_Her heart nearly stopped as she realized what … who she had fallen on. She closed her eyes yet again. _Please don't be who I think you are, _she pleaded with herself. She opened her eyes and slowly traveled up to the person face. Being met with stunning blue eyes and golden blond hair made her stomach lodge in her throat and an all too telling blush flush her face. She let out a gasp before scrambling up and looking anywhere but at Fai. She chanced a small glance to see him smiling, still slightly surprised. _Oh no, what is he thinking now? _She thought, _probably that I'm an idiot! Oh my gosh, I can't believe that just happened, _she kept tormenting herself. _

_She was thankfully brought out of her embarrassment from the sound of Kurogane's quickening footsteps coming closer to her hiding spot. The blush had finally left her face only to be brought back by the feel of strong arms encircling her waste, making her hold her breath and go rigid. She felt herself being lifted from the ground, and when the movement stopped, she opened her eyes to see she was sitting on a branch a few meters up. The arms let her go and she looked beside her to see Fai, smiling down at Kurogane who was looking around in confusion._

_She could now see Sakura and Syaoran by the lakeside trying to get a glimpse of the coral reefs. _

"_Damn it, where the held did that damn mage go?" Kurogane mumbled from below them bringing a smile to her face. She saw Fai wordlessly reach for something above him. She turned to see him throwing a small nut up and down, always catching it with his hand. When Fai looked at her, Emiri new exactly what he was doing and, with her hands, told him to wait. She furrowed her brow in concentration and lightly touched Fai's upper arm. She quietly mumbled a few words and then let go, giving Fai the signal to go ahead while she started gathering more nuts._

"_Ouch! What the hell?" Kurogane said, looking up into the tree. He saw nothing; Emiri sat trying to hold in her laughter. Fai was making funny faces at him and the poor guy didn't even know it! _I love invisibility charms, _Emiri mentally sighed. _

_After gathering a few more nuts, she took her place beside Fai again and together they bombarded Kurogane with nuts. Without thinking, they accidentally let out a loud laugh that caught Kurogane's attention. _

_While Emiri and Fai were still laughing, oblivious, Kurogane walked over to the tree and started shaking it. Fai and Emiri soon lost there balanced and fell off, falling right on top of Kurogane. The charm wore off and now, all three of them sat in a heap on the ground, Kurogane at the bottom, Fai in the middle, and for the second time in five minutes, Emiri on top of Fai. _

_She didn't even have time to think of what position they were in before Kurogane shoved them all off with his strength and sent them sprawling in different directions. Emiri landed more towards the tree. She quickly scrambled up and stood with the trunk of the tree to her back, Kurogane hovering in front of her. His sword was now sheathed, but it was still up against her neck._

_Emiri put her arms up in mock surrender and laughed nervously._

"_Ha ha, Now now, Kurogane, no need to get too angry," she said. All she got in return was a punch that only barely missed her face, instead hitting the tree. She heard a slight cracking above her head and smiled._

"_Ooohhh,, you really shouldn't have done that. Don't you know trees have feelings too. I don't think they'd like it if you did that again. They might just get angry enough to attack you back!" She taunted him the same way one would a child. "There was this one time where -" she wasn't able to finish her story because Kurogane, as if to prove that she was an idiot talking about trees, sent another punch dangerously close to her face. Emiri heard the cracking once again that seemed to escape Kurogane's notice._

"_Now that you've finally stopped moving, I can finally get you," Kurogane said, smiling and tilting his head to the side in thought. That is, he __**was**__ thinking, before the large branch above both their heads finally came crashing down. Emiri, awaiting this, quickly dodged out of the way, the branch connecting only with Kurogane's tilted head and knocked him out cold. Emiri slightly winced, _that must've really hurt, _she thought._

"_Told you so," Emiri said under her breath taking on a far away look. She saw Fai go up to the unmoving Kurogane and kicked him with his foot a few times to see if he would stir. No such luck. _

"_Hyuu, he must really be enjoying his little nap!" Fai smiled._

"_Unfortunately, we have to go," Emiri said. She grabbed Kurogane under the shoulders and started hulling him to the lakes edge. Fai took his legs as he figured out what she was doing. Syaoran and Sakura watched in bewilderment as Emiri and Fai threw him into the water. He soon came out to the surface of the water, sputtering and taking large gulps of air._

"_MAGES!" He yelled menacingly. _

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Oh yes, she remembered alright. She still had a hard time not laughing.

"So how long do you think it'll take us to get out of here?" Fai asked, coming up beside her.

"I don't know," she said, "I'd say, we could get there by noon, but if we move slowly, it'll take us all day. I like the speed we're at right now. At this pace, it'll take us about three quarters of the day. That way it will be too close to dark to enter the Mountains and we can rest."

The day was quite boring, compared to the others. No sinister monsters in sight, ready to rip them to shreds with one false move. The air was carefree with only the light teasing of Kurogane by Fai every few minutes and the light chirping of birds. Emiri was surprised he was actually staying calm. Syaoran was talking with Sakura, something about a Clow country, and Emiri was entertaining Mokona with a few magic tricks. As promised, they reached the edge of the Mountains a little before sunset.

The group found a small stream that came from the mountains and decided to make camp there. Once the camp was completely set up, Emiri excused herself and left out of every ones sight.

"Fai, are you okay?" Syaoran asked. "You've been looking out of it for the past few days." Fai looked up a little surprised by his comment.

"Nothing's the matter, I'm perfectly fine, see?" he said, proving it by pointing to his wide smile etched onto his face. Syaoran still looked a little worried and Sakura was looking between the two, slightly dazed.

"I don't trust her," Kurogane spoke. Every body looked towards him at the unexpected comment.

"What do you mean?" Syaoran asked. Mokona went to sit on top of Kurogane's head, much to his ire.

"Emiri, there's just something about her that I don't trust," Kurogane explained, his face hard.

"Mokona likes Emiri," Mokona put in. "She's nice."

Fai's expression turned serious. _So it wasn't just me, _he thought. He got up and walked to the stream, listening to the others arguing over whether to trust her or not. _Didn't we have this discussion before? _He thought riley. He mentally sighed as he sat by the river. There was something about Emiri that he just couldn't explain. He knew she was hiding something from him, from all of them, but for some reason, he still trusted her. He could see a deep loneliness in her eyes, even if it was concealed very well with a smile. He knew, because it was the same feeling that he had. _Alone, nowhere to go back to, just wandering aimlessly, _he thought bitterly.

"Fai?" Mokona said, jumping onto his shoulder. He quickly put those thoughts away in his head and put on a big smile.

"Yes Mokona," he replied.

"You look lonely," the white manju said. His ears were drooping down onto his back as he said this and a look of concern washed over his face. Fai could faintly here the others, still chatting in the background. He was surprised to see that the sun had already gone down and it was now night. Emiri still wasn't back. He put on a wider smile for Mokona.

"Of course I'm not lonely, see?" he said, having a sense of déjà vu come over him as his fingers pointed to the wide smile now on his face. Mokona didn't comment further, being interrupted by a large growling sound from behind them.

Everyone looked around, thinking it was a bear, but sweat dropped when they found Kurogane holding his stomach.

"Damn it, I'm starving!" he nearly yelled.

"Hey guys," Emiri said, seemingly coming out of nowhere, with a small rabbit in one hand and herbs in the other. She through the rabbit to Kurogane. "Would you mind skinning that for me please?" she asked him.

"Why the hell would I do that?" he yelled in outrage.

"Well, if you want that damn growling to stop then you'll skin the damn rabbit while I get everything else prepared. I could here that growling from way over there," she said pointing behind her; slightly losing her patience and putting on a small pout. Fai smiled seeing the look on Kurogane's face as he fought with himself. He could almost here Kurogane debating whether taking orders from Emiri, or dinner taking longer was worse. He walked back to the group just as Kurogane passed him with the rabbit in hand, grumbling to himself.

"Hey, Kurogane," Emiri called. He stopped, but didn't turn around. She made a slight movement with her hand, like getting rid of a fly, and all of a sudden there was a knife in her hand. She threw the knife directly at Kurogane without speaking a word. Just as the knife was about to pass his shoulder, Kurogane caught it between two fingers and continued walking.

"Is there anything we can do?" Sakura asked, Syaoran right beside her.

"Oh no, don't worry about it, I'll be fine on my own. Syaoran, why don't you take Sakura by the stream, I'm sure she'd love the view and sound," Emiri said lightly, smiling up at them. They put up a little of an argument, but Emiri swatted it away saying that she was perfectly capable of doing it. They left for the stream, just as Fai sat down beside her.

He looked at her with a weird face, Emiri noticed. While trying to ignore Fai's stares Emiri produced a small mortar and pestle out of nowhere. She set a little piece of cloth on the ground and placed the herbs she had picked out on it.

"Let me help," Fai said, reaching for the mortar before Emiri could react. He placed it in on the ground in front of him and picked up one of the herbs he was familiar with, though he didn't know how. He had never seen this plant before and yet, it felt as if he had done this before. Taking the small seeds out of the long leaves and placing them in the mortar to be grounded into a fine powder.

Emiri opened and closed her mouth, trying to tell him that he didn't need to, but no sound would come out. When he looked at her after he had dropped the last of the seeds in the mortar, she quickly looked away, a light blush on her face. She was happy it was dark out; he wouldn't be able to see it. She felt slightly uncomfortable with Fai, and she didn't know why. She would figure it out eventually.

Emiri wordlessly conjured up another mortar and used some more magic to dry the other herbs so that they could be ground as well. She could catch him looking at her from the corner of her eyes but tried to ignore it, hoping he didn't notice her looking. She thought she saw something, empathy, in his eyes, but she couldn't be sure. Throughout the entire ordeal, neither of them had said a word. Only the grinding of the herbs and the small clanking of the mortar and pestle could be heard above the noise of the crickets singing to the night sky. The silence was uncomfortable.

Once Emiri was done, she picked up a pot beside her that Fai hadn't noticed and walked to the stream, filling it halfway with water. She brought it back and set it on the fire, Kurogane right behind her with the skinned rabbit. She took the rabbit wordlessly and started chopping it into bite sized pieces before placing them in the now boiling water.

From a small pouch in her cloak, she produced a few potatoes and some vegetables and placed those in the pot as well. She then placed all of the herbs, one by one into the pot and stirred it every few minutes with another conjured spoon.

"That smells good," Mokona commented, apparently with Sakura and Syaoran the whole time. Emiri smiled, thankful to them for having broken the awkward silence that plagued them since they had gone. The stew was surprisingly quick to cook; Fai had a hunch that Emiri was aiding the process just a little. Kurogane was almost drooling into the pot.

"Down boy," Emiri laughed at Kurogane. She looked to Fai, "maybe we should give the doggy the scraps?" she asked Fai. Immediately, Fai's space broke into a smile.

"I think that is a great idea, we can't have our little Kuro-wuffy all hungry for tomorrow!" Fai said.

"We need our guard dog," Emiri finished, both enjoying the break in the hostility, only to bring on another, more comfortable hostility.

"Damn you!" Kurogane yelled but was silenced as a bowl of steaming stew was forced into his hands. His complaints stopped as he began gulping down his dinner. Emiri laughed as she handed out everyone else share.

They ate comfortably, commenting on nothing in particular. Soon, it was time for everyone to sleep. They had all finished eating and, with their stomachs full, a dazed feeling came over them making them sleepy. Emiri was happy to curl up inside her large cloak, her staff held loosely to her form in case of an emergency.

Kurogane was off to sleep under a tree again; she really didn't know how he never got cricks in his neck. Sakura and Syaoran were sleeping close to each other, with Mokona in Sakura's arms and Fai a little ways off from Emiri. She could see two blue orbs staring at her from his direction, but was too tired to read anything into it before her eyes closed. _It's going to be a hard day tomorrow, _was her last thought before sleep finally took her.

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A/N

Well here's the next chapter. I know it was quite boring, I wasn't quite too sure what to do with this one, and I'm still thinking about the what to do in the next chapter. Also, if anyone has some suggestions for a bit of fluff, I'm glad to take them and hopefully add them in the story somewhere, so please, if you do have suggestion, either put it in the review or you could PM me! Hopefully the next chapter will be better, we are finally getting closer to the actual plot of the story! hehe Oh I can't wait!

Now, it is the easiest thing you will ever do ...

**Click the little button and REVIEW!** hehe.

Oh yes and thank you to everyone who reviewed last chapter, that was the most reviews I got for any one chapter and I just love you all so much! lol


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Yes, yes, I know, nobody has to tell me I do not own Tsubasa Chronicles. But do they **have **to keep rubbing it in?

**Tainted Memories**

Chapter 10:

"_Hey, mommy?" a little girl asked, tugging on her mother's white apron. _

"_Hmm? Yes, honey?" the mother asked, placing the wooden spoon she was holding onto the counter and turning to face her daughter. The front of her apron was smeared with batter._

"_What are you making?" the girl asked, light, silver eyes shining up at her mother's face. The mother smiled at the small girl, kneeling down to look her in the eyes. _

"_I'm making some cupcakes and cookies, sweetheart. Would you like to help?" She asked kindly, ruffling the little girls' hair. The little girl scrunched up her face in concentration before a smile broke out on her small face, reaching almost to her ears and showing in the brightness of her eyes. She nodded her head vigorously, holding up her hands for her mother to pick her up. The mother laughed and quickly scooped her up in her arms, exciting a loud shriek, which then turned to giggles. She set her daughter on the counter and gave her a small bowl to work with._

"_Okay honey, shall we get started?" The mother asked, smiling down at her daughter._

"_Yeah!" the girl said excitedly._

"_Okay, the first thing I want you to do is keep putting in some flour as I keep stirring the dough. Can you do that?" the mother asked. Instead of answering verbally, the little girl scrambled across the counter and set her hand on a big bag of flour, wobbling her way back to her mother's side. As she put the bag down, by the mixing bowl, the little girl looked up into her mother's chocolate brown eyes and smiling face, framed by two pieces of dark brown hair that fell from the bun that held the rest of her hair up. The girl smiled back._

"_Ready mommy!" the girl said, getting ready to lift the large bag of flour. _

"_Alright, let's start then," the mother said chuckling. The little girl had the bag of flour in her hands and was getting ready to put some of it into the bowl when …_

"_I'm home!" A loud voice boomed from the door on the other side of the kitchen. The loud voice shocked the little girl and sent her and the bag of flour tumbling to the floor. The flour, being heavier than the child, fell first to the ground and shielded the child's fall to the floor. The resulting crash sent up clouds of flour all across the kitchen and covered the little girl from head to toe. She lifted her white coated head to point at the intruder with a pout on her face and brow scrunched in anger._

"_Daddy, look what you did!" the girl tried to scream through all of the flour that was still settling slowly to the floor. All she got in return was a laugh, and soon, before she knew what was going on, she felt two strong arms wrap around her form and lift her up. _

_Despite her efforts at trying to stay mad, the girl let out a small squeak, which turned to more giggles. He twirled her around in circles, giving her a good view of the entire kitchen. The cabinets along the walls were all yellow, and the walls were white. There was a small flower patch outside the window sills on the front and side walls of the kitchen. A small eating area was situated close to the corner with three intricately carved chairs. There were a whole bunch of different spices along the counters, with her mother picking out which ones to use. Lastly she came to look into her dad's face. It was a kind face, with a tint of dark circles under the eyes and a worn look that instantly disappeared as he laid his eyes on his daughter._

"_You're going to get all white now daddy," the girl pointed out, but he didn't respond. He was looking at his wife, starting to clean up the mess with a smile on her face. It looked like she was trying to hold in laughter._

"_Welcome home Dave," the mother said as she quickly swept up the flour into one large pile in the corner. Dave smiled._

"_As if I could spend too much time away from you, Elise," he said. The little girl rolled her eyes as she was put down again to stand on her own two feet as her parents embraced each other with a hug. She made light gagging noises behind their backs when they started kissing and soon left the room. She thought she was going to throw up. She made her way up the stairs, but before she could enter her room, she was stopped by her dad's voice._

"_Pumpkin," he said, from the bottom of the stairs. Her small head peeked out from the hallway and looked down at him from the top of the staircase. "Make sure you take a bath before you jump all over you're furniture," he reminded her. _

"_Do I __**have**__ to?" the little girl whined._

"_Yes, you do. Now go, before I have to come up there and force you," he said. She didn't complain further as she dragged her feet down the hall and into the bathroom. She didn't need to know that the bath was already made. _

_She quickly jumped in and made sure all traces of flour was off her before jumping out. She didn't pay too much attention to the light green wallpaper along the walls, with a few strategically placed pictures. There was also a small sink with her toothbrush, comb and hair pieces. She quickly put on a dress that was waiting for her on the door of the bathroom. The dress was white with a few flower designs along the edges. She thought of going outside to play with the dogs._

_Instead of going outside, she made her way to her room. As she passed the stairs, she could hear the faint sound of her parents talking in hushed voices. She didn't stay too long to try and figure out what they were talking about, eager to get to her room. She opened the door to her room and walked in, closing it softly behind her. _

_She ran to her bed and jumped onto it, laying down on her back and looking up to the ceiling. After a few minutes of staring into the glowing stars that adorned her ceiling and gave off a soft light at night, she moved her head to look at the rest of her room. There was a small dresser at the far end of the room, across from the front of her bed. In the middle of the room, a small round carpet covered the wood flooring and two night tables stood at the end of each side of the bed. A bigger dresser off in the corner of her room, near the window was used to store her clothes. _

_The dresser against the wall had a large mirror attached to it. The girl always had to use the delicately carved stool to look at herself in it. On top of the dresser was an assortment of small objects collected out in the field surrounding her house. There were a few rocks, some flowers that she had placed in a small vase and a few pieces of jewellery that her mother had given her. The night tables were bare, except for one small lamp on each that she used to practice reading every night. _

_Running up to the door, she placed her ear flat on it, listening for sounds of her parents and where they might be. She could faintly here them still in the kitchen talking. _Perfect, _she thought. She then ran back to her bed, but, instead of jumping onto it, she crawled underneath it and snatched a small box from under it, concealed by a very simple magic spell. She dragged the semi-heavy box on top of her bed and sat beside it. It was a small wooden box engraved with her name on the cover in elegant blue script. It was inlaid with gold and silver flowers, stars and vines that created a cage that seemed to trap the dark color of the mahogany wood the box was made of._

_She slowly opened it and took out a large book, running over the encrypted letters on the front cover, _Serium demas chaleem insetia. _Running her fingers once again over the old, silver script, she gently placed it down beside her and started taking out the rest of the box's contents. She took out a small stone that started glowing the second she touched it. She quickly put that down before the brightness could hurt her eyes. She also pulled out a small pouch. When she opened it, twelve tiny, different colored orbs glowed up at her. The last thing she took out of the box was a small, clear sphere. Within it, a black diamond with dark blue dots embellishing its interior. She held it up to her face for a few minutes, trying to make out patterns. She soon put it down with the rest of her small collection._

_She surveyed them all before reaching out towards the book. She took it into her small, pale hands and again, laid her eyes on the cover. She did not know how she could read any of the script in the book. She knew she had never seen this type of writing system before, yet, the words made sense. She didn't know what they meant in her own language, and couldn't translate them no matter how hard she tried. She just seemed to know them. All she knew, was this was a book of magic. Something she had to keep secret from her parents. They didn't want her to use magic. She hesitated in opening the book, remembering her parents' warnings. _

"_Listen to us honey," her mother had said. "You should never use magic. Nothing good will come of it." _

"_But why?" the little girl asked, tears brimming her eyes._

"_Just listen to your mother, darling. Never use magic." Her dad had said, standing next to her mother. This was after an incident where she had accidentally used magic without knowing what it was. She had made herself a small doll to play with. When she showed her parents her accomplishment, they had told her to never do it again, and punished her. She still didn't understand why._

_Still looking at the cover of the book, hand poised to open it she thought over it again. _Why shouldn't I be able to learn? _She thought. _Mommy and Daddy use it all the time, so why can't I?_ With those thoughts pushing her to disobey her parents, like so many other times, she slowly opened the book and dove into its mysterious contents. If there was one thing she was going to do, it was become a mage, with, or without help from her parents. _

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"_Hey girl, get up," a strong and cruel voice called from outside the cell. The fourteen year old girl stayed in her position on the cold stone flooring in the corner of the cell. It stank of sweat, blood, and urine from all of the other prisoners kept there over the years. Every second the girl was forced to suppress the urge to throw up the meagre meals she was given._

_At the sound of the footsteps getting closer, she lifted her head slightly to see the subtle light coming from the doorway of the prison exit. She could see the faint outline of the measly bed they provided for her, nothing but a small, bug infested blanket that wasn't even big enough for her small form. She didn't sleep in it once in the two years she had been there. _

_Why they kept her alive all this time, she didn't know. Why was she so important? What was it about her that they had to keep hidden? At the sound of the guard's footsteps getting closer, she turned her head to the door of her cell as a man put the key into the lock. A loud click and then the creaking of the door as it swung open was the only thing that could be heard, other than the loud moans of the other captives, along with the faint dripping of water._

"_Didn't you hear me, girl?" he said mockingly as he came towards her still form and stood tall in front of her. She looked up into his cold ruby eyes. "I said, get up," he said more forcefully. She looked back down at the floor, examining the cracks in the stone and trailing them with her weak fingers. She heard the guard above her growl slightly and then felt a pressure on her fore arm._

_The guard silently pulled her to her feet and then let her go. When she fell back down to the ground the guard swore and shoved her back up again, this time, holding her up. He dragged her unwilling form down the dark hallway. She had already memorized the path and knew where he was taking her. She tried to fight off the offending hand that was gripping her harder by the arm. Her weak punch made the guard laugh and look down on her._

"_Still haven't given up eh?" the guard said mockingly. He chuckled again. "Don't worry; we'll make sure to fix that soon. We're all surprised you haven't gone insane yet. Were taking bets, so make sure you loose it soon."_

_As she was dragged through the hallways, she looked inside the other cells. Other sodden faces could be seen, some filled with tears, others with hatred. The ones she feared the most were the ones that held no emotion in their eyes. She was terrified that she would become like them, a zombie. She slightly shook her head to get rid of those thoughts. She promised herself that she would not think like that. _I **will **get out of here, _she thought to herself. _

_Filled with new determination and a new strength that seemed to surge through her from at the thoughts of escape, she again tried to pry the guard's hands off her. She stomped her foot on the ground and held fast. Bawling her hand up in a fist, she punched the man in the face making him let go of her arm. As his hands were up feeling the damage, a small red print, she moved in front of him and kneed him in the groin. If that punch didn't hurt, this certainly did as he crumpled into a heap on the floor, but not before he let out a warning to the other guards. _

_She didn't have much time. She quickly turned into another corridor and made a break for it. Her weak legs wouldn't be able to support her for long. As she got to the end of the corridor, she could here the others guards coming. She made a sprint down the left corridor and then turned right. As she was running down another corridor lined with torches, she heard running footsteps from behind her. She quickly ducked into another small hall, this one, without any torches to light her way. _

_She could here the guards running down the same corridor she had just come from. She cautiously backed her way to the other end of the corridor, only to stop short as a pair of iron arms trapped her._

"_Now, now, sweetheart, where d'ya think you're going?" the obnoxious voice asked. _

"_Dethar let me go!" the girl said, struggling to get out of his embrace. He was squeezing the breath out of her while lifting her up to the spikes on his chest armour. They were slowly digging their way into her back. She heard him laugh._

"_You should know by now that you can't escape, especially with me here," he said; his cold, deep, voice sending shivers through her body as he spoke tauntingly into her ear. _

_Her struggles were stopped when he punched her in the stomach putting her into a semi unconscious state. He was practiced at making sure that prisoners could here, feel, and understand everything going on, but were unable to do anything about it. It was the reason she was so weak right now; and for all of the years she had been there. This was the one man responsible for interrupting all of her escape plans. He always seemed to be around when she attempted them. She cursed him with all her heart._

"_Now, come on darling, looks like you're going to be late for your session," he said, smiling, grabbing her limp arm and dragging her back the way she had come. As she stared back into the cells, she could now see the other victims looking at her with pity. If she had the strength to glare, she would have done so. She didn't want __**pity.**__ She wanted out!_

_As she passed the guard she had previously rendered immobile, she thought to herself, _gee, nice friends to leave you there, ha serves you right you … _She continued to think up vulgar names until she was brought by Dethar down another hallway and finally came upon a very familiar door. _

"_Ready sweetheart?" he asked mockingly. After no answer, he just laughed and opened the door, shoving the girl in. He stood beside her, waiting to be noticed. She didn't need to look around the room to know what each instrument was for. She had become accustomed to all of them each day of her imprisonment. _

"_Ah, there you are," one man said, his face masked and hands covered. She couldn't see what he was wearing in the darkness. "It's about time, we almost didn't think you'd come at all!" the man said._

_Dethar's grip on her arm tightened as he brought her over to one of the contraptions. She was sat down in a chair and chains were placed to hold her in place. The entire time, her eyes held no sign of acknowledgement. She knew, that the only thing that pleased them was seeing her give into their torture and scream and beg. She'd be damned if she gave it to them. _

_As they started "information gathering", whatever __**that **__was, the girl was lost in her own thoughts yet again. Completely oblivious to the pain her body was going through. _I will get out of here, _she kept thinking, even as blood started to slowly make its way down her neck, leaving a warm, wet trail down her back. All the while, her eyes were glazed and her face showed no emotion._

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"_Hey, granny, where do you think you're going?" A girl with light brown hair asked running up to another girl of the same age with white, silvery hair. "Come on, didn't we say to meet us by the forest edge, umm, lets see," she said, putting her finger to her chin in thought. "15 minutes ago?" she finished in exasperation, with a little bit of anger._

"_Oh, I'm sorry, did you really Koruka? I didn't realize a bitch like you was able to tell me what to do," the girl with silvery hair spoke in an overly sweet voice. She had a fake smile on her face and she was taking deep breaths to calm her anger. She didn't want a fight. The girl named Koruka sneered at her, her little gang walking up behind her._

"_So, you're taking the exam I take it?" Koruka asked, grinding her teeth. "Do you really think they'd let someone like __**you**__ become a mage? A monster?" she asked, smirking._

_The girl just narrowed her eyes and turned around, walking in the opposite direction. She would not get into trouble again, especially not today with the mage exams in only a few hours. She knew she should have just stayed in her room; it would've probably been safer than out here, with all of the others on her case._

"_Hey, I was talking to you!" Koruka yelled in outrage. The girl just kept walking. Soon, she was surrounded by Koruka's gang. _Great, _she thought in exasperation, _how am I going to get out of this one?

_The girl adjusted her bag so it was resting on her shoulder, that way, she'd be able to defend herself if they came upon her. Luckily, one of the teachers came by and noticed what was going on._

"_What are you girls dong out here?" Mr. Dester asked, glasses held high on his nose and a book under his arm. He was wearing a green cloak with the hood down to reveal his jet black hair and the bags under his blue eyes, the most prominent features on his face. _

_Everyone knew his eyes weren't really blue, he had used a spell to change them, yet every time someone apprehended him, he would either ignore it, or say he did no such thing. Nobody should change there selves with magic he always taught. _So much for that,_ she thought. _

"_Oh nothing sir," Koruka said, smiling. The girl had to force herself not to gag. "I was just talking to Granny over here," she said. The girl ground her teeth at the insult; her frown deepened more when the teacher didn't do anything. _

"_Yes, well that's all fine, but you should be inside studying, you're exams are in two hours, now off you get," he said, talking to Koruka. Koruka glanced sideways at the girl before walking off towards the school._

_As the teacher brought his gaze over to the girl, his face showed shock, which was overridden by disgust in a few seconds, and without even a word, walked off. Apparently, he didn't realize who exactly he was helping. The girl sighed, already used to this treatment. She decided she might as well go study; she didn't have much time left until she could actually, legally curse Koruka. She needed to practice. She broke out into a smile as she made her way to her room, not even noticing the angry glances everyone was throwing her._

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A/N

Well here's the next chapter ... I know, it was competely crappy, but, since I know this chapter was just SO obvious about who it was about, I'm just going to say that now you now a little bit about a certain character (who you might be meating very soon for those of you who may not know who it is, I'm not saying who exactly it is or whether you've met them yet. You never know, you might not have. This could be like an introduction to a new character that will be making an appearance to the group in the next chapter) Sigh, I'm afraid I suck at keeping things like this secret! Well anyway, besides that the obviouse boringness of the chapter, what did you like? If anything. Please also tell me what you didn't like, that way I might be able to do something about it! If I don't know what it is ... I can't fix it so please tell me and REVIEW! LOL

For all of you who reviewed last chapter and for every other chapter I thank you sooo much, you have no idea how awsome you guys are. You guys are the ones who make me want to keep writing this story, and a VERY special thanks to those of you who have reviewed every single chapter! You guys are absolutely, possitively amazing!


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own anything having to do with Tsubasa Chronicles and most likely never will! Well except the plotline of this fic and Emiri.

**Tainted Memories**

Chapter 11:

"Emiri, what are you doing?" Sakura asked as she sat up, looking towards Emiri who had just finished dowsing the camp fire. Syaoran and Kurogane were still sleeping while Fai, Sakura, Emiri and Mokona had gotten up ten minutes earlier. With all four of them working, the camp grounds were cleared easily since there was very little to actually clear. Emiri was holding two flat metal objects, one in each hand. They were attached to small knobs at the centre and slightly caved inwards. Emiri said they were called cymbals.

"That's odd, Kuro-pin is usually up before everyone," Fai said kneeling down beside the sleeping samurai while Mokona poked his arm.

"Syaoran too," Sakura stated moving towards him.

"You wouldn't have had anything to do with that, would you Emiri?" Fai asked slyly, coming up beside her and kneeling down slightly so they were eye level. Emiri involuntarily stepped back at the close proximity.

"Well, ummm," she stuttered and smiled sheepishly. "I may have had something to do with Kurogane still sleeping, but I swear I **did not **put anything in Syaoran's dinner that would make him oversleep," Emiri said putting her hand behind her head.

"So how do we wake him up?" Sakura asked.

"Oh, I can think of a way," Emiri said, lifting up the cymbals that were still clasped in her hands. They gleamed in the sunlight as she walked towards Kurogane. She turned her head to the other two and put her finger to her lips to tell them to be quite and then pulled Mokona off of Kurogane. She slowly raised the cymbals to his ear and loudly clamped them together, creating a ringing sound that echoed off the mountains.

Kurogane jumped up and immediately got into a fighting position, his sword out of its sheath and its holder in an attack position. Emiri had already moved back towards Fai and Sakura, pulling Mokona along with her. Syaoran had awoken by the noise and quickly looked around to see what the commotion was. When he saw that there was no threat, he relaxed and made his way towards the others.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!" Kurogane yelled, turning his head this way and that trying to find the culprit. He turned on Fai and Emiri who were both standing a little ways off to the side, Emiri trying to hold in her laughter. "IT WAS YOU!" he yelled, his gaze showing his anger as he moved in strides over to them.

Emiri slowly moved so that Fai was in the middle of her and Kurogane, shielding her from his smouldering stare. Fai looked back at her and she looked at him with pleading and apologetic eyes. He only smiled back. When he turned his face towards Kurogane again, he found his nose centimetres away from the tip of Kurogane's sharp blade.

"Out of the way mage," he said in a deathly whisper. "I know it was that little girl who did it, now move so I can kill her." Fai held his arms up in front of him and leaned back.

"Now, now Kuro-woofy, you don't know Emiri did it, I didn't see her do anything," Fai said, still smiling. "Ask Sakura too, she never saw anything, right Sakura?" Fai said, his and Kurogane's head both turning to look at her.

Sakura's eyes widened as she looked back and forth trying to figure out whether they were really talking to her. She didn't say anything.

"There, you see Kuro-woofy? Sakura didn't see anything either," he said. "Now let's put down the sword and play nicely with each other," Fai said as he used his finger to move Kurogane's sword out of his face.

"Fine, but I know it was you," Kurogane said as he stormed off. Emiri quietly sighed as Fai turned to face her.

"Thanks," she said shyly, not looking him in the eyes as he knelt down and whispered into her ear.

"Let's give our little guard dog a break. We can't have him too stressed," Fai said and then went off to talk with Syaoran. Emiri gave Kurogane a cooling break before leading the group towards the snow capped mountains. Mokona took up residence on Emiri's head, chatting about his latest dream of dumplings, Emiri nodding every once and a while pretending to listen.

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"Ouch! Get off me stupid mage!"

"Oh dear," Emiri spoke softly.

"I can't see a thing!" Syaoran said.

"It's too dark," Mokona stated.

"Syaoran?"

"Over here princess."

"Where are we?" Fai asked.

"Looks like some kind of tunnel," Emiri said, a light coming into appearance from the end of her staff.

"Now look where we've landed! It's your entire fault. I knew we shouldn't have followed you," Kurogane accused.

"Now, now, calm down. How was I supposed to know an angry mortagle would knock us into a ditch." Emiri sighed looking around. "It looks like there's a tunnel underneath the ground. When we came down we probably rolled into it and then the roof caved in."

"Mortagle? Is that what that thing was? What was is exactly?" Syaoran asked.

"Oh don't ask. It's kind of a long story and I don't even know if it's true, something about glubulars and anmorates." Emiri answered, if that could be considered an answer.

"Fat lot of help _that_ is, thanks," Kurogane sneered.

"Oh, your welcome," Emiri said brightly.

"So how are we supposed to get out? Do you know where we are?" Syaoran asked now standing, Sakura close behind him.

"I've never heard of this tunnel existing. It's either very new or very old. Hopefully it's old," Emiri said.

"Why is that?" Sakura asked.

"Well, if it is new, someone is probably here. If it's old, we can assume that nobody's been here for thousands of years, and that means no trouble. At least with living things," Emiri explained.

"Well then we might as well follow the path. It looks like the only way out of here," Fai put in. The group decided to ignore the last of Emiri's sentence.

The group slowly made there way through the dark tunnel. Mokona or Sakura would jump slightly from the loud dripping sound that reverberated throughout the tunnel. Soon they came to three breaks in the tunnel, one leading to the right, one going straight and the other turning left.

"Let's split up. We can meet back here in thirty minutes so that we can see which tunnel leads where," Kurogane said with an air of authority. Everyone nodded there head in approval and split up into three groups of two.

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"Wow, it's so beautiful," Sakura stated in wonder. Along the path her and Syaoran were taking (the left one), softly illuminated crystals jutted out of the walls of the cave. Each one of them seemed to glow as if a small fire were at the center of each crystal. Syaoran just smiled and kept walking. So far, they had not seen anything, dead or alive. It seemed as though the tunnels were uninhabited.

Despite their beauty and lovely appearance, the crystals were soon starting to become a hazard. At the beginning, the crystals only appeared on the side walls of the tunnel. Soon they started to see them on the roof of the tunnel and then further on, on the floor.

"Syaoran!" Sakura cried. Syaoran quickly leapt out of the way of a large, pointed gemstone that had fallen from the ceiling. The gemstone's point landed almost silently in the ground, vibrating before becoming completely still.

"Are you alright?" Sakura's concerned voice came from a little way off. She was running towards him but before she could help him up, her foot caught on one of the crystals jutting out from the ground and she tumbled over. Syaoran tried to catch her but ended up falling back to the ground himself, Sakura landing on top of him.

"Princess, are you alright?" Syaoran's concerned voice spoke into her ear, which was very close to his mouth.

"Yes," came her meek reply, but Sakura didn't make a move to get off him, still a bit shaken from the fall.

"Uh, princess?" Syaoran spoke, now noticing just how close they were.

"Hmm?" Sakura's oblivious voice answered. She soon realized what he was talking about and jerked up moving to his side, a blush gracing her face. Both their eyes met for a few seconds, but neither of them could take the embarrassment and looked away simultaneously.

"I … think we should go back now," Syaoran stated, uncomfortable after the occurrence. Sakura merely nodded her head in the affirmative and let Syaoran lead the way back to where the paths came together.

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"**I'm telling you, we should go this way," **came Emiri's strained voice.

"**And _I'm_ ****telling _you_**** we should go _this_ ****way," **Kurogane's voice answered with just as much strain. Both of them were trying to keep their voices down. They encountered multiple near cave-ins as they walked down the path, neither of them wanting to state that they should go back. Doing so would damage both their pride. That, and the other would gain bragging rights on how the other "chickened out." Of course none of this was spoken; it didn't have to be. Their path (the center one) divided into another two paths after ten minutes of walking.

"**Fine, how about _you_**** go _that_**** way, and _I'll_**** go _this_****way," **Emiri said more as a command than question. Without an answer, Kurogane walked along the path to the left while Emiri took the path to the right.

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"Stupid idiot," Emiri mumbled to herself. "Why does he never listen to me?" She kept walking forward not really paying attention to her surroundings illuminated by her staff. Her mind too focused on her anger towards the half-witted samurai that was strutting along the other trail. She started feeling kind of bad for the samurai. He didn't know what was in this world, and what if something happened to him. She was glad she had made him a small light source before their argument. But she quickly banished the thought, their recent argument playing around in her head again. Soon though, she started hearing a low voice up ahead.

She quickly grabbed her staff, her hands holding it in a tight grip in front of her. Whoever was there didn't hold any energy signature that she could feel. _They must be very strong to hide it from me_, she thought. She bent her knees slightly in an attack position as she approached the area where the sound originated.

She was almost there, the voice was getting louder. Her foot caught against something and she almost fell over but managed to catch herself. She berated herself for making that mistake, she had made a slight scuffling sound and the voice had stopped. She felt a strong tension in the air and knelt down closer to the ground.

She cursed herself for getting into this situation, if she had been more observant, instead of being angry, she could have caught this a lot sooner and saved herself the trouble of getting into a fight. _Crud._

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Kurogane, on the other hand, was very calm. Well at least, that was how he looked. On the inside however, he was raging. _Who the hell does that little twerp think she is! As if my intuition could be wrong!_

Soon though, the turmoil in his head got too much for his mind to carry and he had to let out his frustration in some way. Soon his thoughts turned into speech as he let all of his frustration out in mumbles.

His mumbling was stopped though from a sound to his right. He quickly pressed his back to the wall, listening for any other sign that may help him identify the culprit. He slowly made his way forward, keeping his ears open for any sound that may reach them.

His hand grasped his sword and his gripped tightened, ready to attack whoever was there.

Metal clashed with wood as Kurogane jumped out only to strike at Emiri who had her staff up in a defensive position against his sword.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?" Kurogane yelled, Emiri's grayish silver hair was slightly blown back by the force of the attack and her blue highlights seemed to glow eerily in the dim light.

"I SHOULD BE ASKING YOU THAT!" Emiri yelled back.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU KNOW THE PATHS CROSSED AGAIN! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE OUR GUIDE AND YET YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW YOU'RE WAY AROUND YOUR OWN WORLD!?"

"WELL EXCUSE ME! HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THE PATHS INTERSECTED AGAIN! IF YOU'RE SO SMART WHY DIDN'T YOU FIGURE IT OUT?"

"SHUT UP TWERPY MAGE!"

"WHY DON'T YOU SHUT YOUR OWN TRAP, DAMN MONGREL!"

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"Dumplings, dumplings, lots and lots of dumplings!" Mokona was singing from atop Fai's shoulder. Fai was smiling lightly as they went through the tunnel. Mokona's head stone provided a small light source that helped guide them through the otherwise dark path.

"Well, it doesn't seem like this path offers any way of escape, does it Mokona?" Fai asked the cute manju, now humming his song, on his shoulder.

"Mokona senses something up ahead!"

"Hmmm? Maybe we should go see what it is then," Fai said, and continued walking. Mokona stayed silent as they crept closer to a reddish light ahead of them. As they came closer, they could here drums echoing in a steady rhythm and so decided to move slower and with more caution.

"What are they saying?" Mokona asked.

"It sounds like some kind of chant, maybe for a spell," Fai said.

"Fai, Mokona doesn't like the sound of what they're doing. Let's go back and tell everyone what we found. Maybe they found another way to get out of here."

"Alight let's go then," Fai said, giving in quickly. He, too, wasn't too eager to see what they were doing.

As he and Mokona came back to where each of the tunnels broke off, they found Sakura and Syaoran already there waiting for them.

"Where are Kurogane and Emiri?" Fai asked.

"They're not back yet. We've been here for about five minutes," Syaoran said.

"I hope nothing bad happ-" Sakura almost said when a loud rumbled filled their ears. It was coming from the center tunnel.

"What the …" Syaoran trailed off as both Kurogane and Emiri tumbled out right before the entire roof of the tunnel caved in. The group started coughing from all of the dust and debris in the air.

"NOW LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!" Emiri said pointing to the, now, blocked entrance of the tunnel.

"ME!" Kurogane yelled in disbelief. "YOU'RE THE ONE WHO STARTED EVERYTHING!"

"I WAS NOT!" Emiri yelled back in abashment.

They were about to attack each other but both Syaoran and Fai held them back.

"Kurogane, calm down," Syaoran said, holding back Kurogane with all his strength.

"You too," Fai told Emiri who was slightly calmer after a few moments of trying to escape from Fai's hold. Both of them were breathing hard. Once they seemed to be calmer, Fai and Syaoran let them go. They both started to walk towards each other. Sakura had her hands on her mouth, eyes wide with Mokona imitating her.

They were both standing inches away from each other, Kurogane towering over Emiri, though it didn't seem to bother her. They looked each other in the eyes for a minute and then both simultaneously looked away in different direction. The rest of the group let out a large sigh and Syaoran and Fai sweat-dropped.

"Okay then, seeing as Kurogane and Emiri's tunnel is caved in did you and Sakura find anything?" Fai asked.

"We didn't really get a chance to find anything. If there is a way out, it's too dangerous to get there. The ceiling is full of sharp crystals and they're unstable. If we go that way we'll probably be skewered," Syaoran replied.

"It looks like we'll have to go through that place then," Mokona said.

"What place?" Emiri asked, her interest spiked.

"We didn't really see it with our eyes, but there was a light farther down the tunnel and someone was chanting some sort of spell," Fai said.

Emiri stood frozen for barely a second before speaking.

"Show me."

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A/N

Alright I know, don't kill me! I am still alive, believe it or not, well I gues you have to since I'm FINALLY updating. I hope nobody has gotten bored with the story from lack of updates, If you did I can't blame you cause it was a REALLY long wait and I know that. So I'm EXTREMELY SORRY for the long wait but here it is so enjoy if you can and please review because I appreciate every single one of them! And thank you to those who reviewed last chapter and thank you very much for those who have stuck with this fic throughout all of the chapters!


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own anything doing with Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles. Though I REALLY wish I did!

**Tainted Memories**

Chapter 12:

The sound of drums echoed off the tunnel walls like thunder. Everyone could feel the vibration throughout their bodies, their hearts beating in sync with each beat. The voices which they had heard earlier were now drowned out by the drums.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

"Are you sure we should go this way?" Sakura asked. She was staying close to Syaoran for comfort. Everyone could feel how wrong the place felt. As they kept walking closer the feeling only became stronger.

"There isn't really any other way out," Syaoran said.

"Do you know what it is?" Mokona asked Emiri from Kurogane's shoulder. Emiri didn't answer. She was too far into her own thoughts to even here Mokona. Nobody talked after this and just kept walking; all the while an uneasy feeling kept pressing harder at each of their hearts. Sakura and Mokona showed this clearly on their faces. Kurogane, Fai, Emiri and Syaoran however were better at hiding it.

Soon the drums started beating at a faster rhythm, and with it, so did their hearts.

Thump, thump, thump.

Thump, thump, thump.

Thump, thump, thump.

Emiri suddenly tightened her grip on her staff, Kurogane and Syaoran took hold of there swords on pure instinct.

"What's wrong?" Kurogane asked.

"What?" Emiri stared back at them confused for a moment, as if she had forgotten they were there, her hand gripped her staff tighter.

"What's wrong?" Kurogane unwillingly repeated.

"Can't you feel it?" Emiri asked in a rushed voice. "Everything's wrong. Try to feel your heart beating."

Everyone closed their eyes and stood completely still. Sakura was the first to open her eyes in horror.

"I can't feel it!" she said, starting to panic.

"It'll be hard because of the drums but try to feel it," Emiri said.

"Mine's beating at the same time as the drums," Fai told them.

"Mokona's too."

"Mine is too," Syaoran put in.

"What's going on?" Kurogane demanded looking at Emiri; who, at the moment, was concentrating on something.

"Fai was right. It is a spell and they're trying to bring us into it. Not on purpose maybe, but still bringing us in," Emiri explained.

"What do you mean, 'bringing us in'? Bringing us into what?" Syaoran asked.

"They're performing a summoning ritual. Here, come see for your self," Emiri said beckoning them over to the ledge that looked down upon the scene.

The red light had come from fire that was blazing all around the cavern in no apparent order. There was one large fire right in the center over a large rough boulder. Large red things were busily running around making sure none of the fires were extinguished while others were kept in cages. They had long, pointed ears and tails that ended in points.

Large horns adorned their heads while smaller ones covered the rest of their bodies. It looked like they were made of magma, the black horns the cool places in the infernos that were their bodies. They had gleaming round yellow eyes and their snouts were pointed with sharp teeth jutting up from the bottom of their jaws.

"Hyuuu, what are those?" Fai asked softly in curiosity.

"How can you still sound so cheerful?" Emiri asked looking at Fai. On the contrary, he didn't look cheerful, only his voice gave the impression of it. He didn't respond and so Emiri went on. "They're fire nymphs. They're not supposed to be that big though. Someone must have cast an enlargement spell on them. The problem is that fire nymphs are already magical creatures, to be able to cast a spell like that on them would take a lot of power, even if it is simple. Usually they're only as big as a thumb and don't hurt anybody, although they can be **really **annoying sometimes," said moving a little off topic.

Her explanation had to stop for the drums were getting louder and quicker, and with it, so did their hearts.

"Syaoran," Sakura said in a pained voice.

"Princess what's," Syaoran stopped and clutched his chest near his heart. His eyes were wide and a hint of terror crossed them. "What's happening?" he said through clenched teeth.

Emiri, Fai, Mokona and Kurogane were all clutching their hearts as well from the pain. The drums kept beating faster and it was as if their hearts were about to burst from the strain of beating so fast.

"Shit!" Emiri cursed. She got up and drew a circle in the light dust coating the floor with her staff around the group who was now hunched up on the ground. She moved to the middle of the circle, almost falling herself from the pain. Once she reached her destination she harshly shoved the bottom point of the wooden staff into the ground. A circle of light surrounded them on the floor. The light broke off creating an intricate pattern along the ground inside the circle. "Alm'r zastra," she said. With those words the light became brighter and the pain started to slowly ebb away.

"That was a protection spell right?" Fai asked when it was over, now able to get up as did the rest of the group.

"Yeah," Emiri said breathlessly. "That was close. Is everyone alright?" She got uncertain nods from most of them, but was satisfied. "Now what's going on?" she said to herself.

"Come on, it won't hurt anymore," she said reassuringly.

As they looked down from the ledge, they could see that there were other people, these ones actually looking like humans, now in the cavern. There were twelve of them, all in dark blue cloaks with dark, purple jewels along the neckline. The shadows from the fires prevented the group from clearly seeing their faces. There was also another person standing a little ways off to the side. The person wore a metal helmet and a chest plate with small spikes near the breast. From the naked arms, one could tell that the person was very strong; the muscles rippling as he lightly took hold of one of two swords that hung from his back.

The drums suddenly stopped and everything was quiet in the room, nothing but the loud crackling of the fires could be heard. Then, the person standing off to the side chuckled. The sound echoed through the large cavern and sent chills up the group's spines; Sakura started shivering.

"Start making the final preparations!" The voice, obviously male, came from the man off to the side. The group watched intently as he took off his helmet to show dark reddish hair that looked almost the same color as the nymphs.

Fai, who was kneeling close to Emiri, felt her stiffen. He turned to see her completely rigged and eyes widened in terror. Her mouth was slightly agape and her face soon took on a look of disgust that mingled with the horrified expression still glued there.

_Something must be wrong for her to be acting like that, _he thought. He lightly reached out and grabbed her upper arm in his strong grip causing her to jump slightly and sharply turn to look at him.

"What's wrong," he said. Emiri just looked at him; then at the rest of the group who were now staring at her as well.

"Stay here and don't move," she commanded and then, before anyone could stop her, jumped off the ledge and landed silently onto a lower one. She continued her decent until she reached the ground of the cavern and found a spot behind a large rock to shield her from view.

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_Damn it! Why is he here? He can't possibly be … _Emiri let her mind trail off as she looked upon the summoning area of the cavern from behind the rock. _Isn't it just a rumour though? That thing can't be real! It's supposed to be a myth! _No matter how much she tried to convince herself this wasn't happening, it was. _I can't let him do this._

Emiri took from one of the inside pockets of her cloak a small piece of chalk and drew on the side of the rock a pentagon. Within the pentagon she drew the outline of a phoenix.

As soon as the simple drawing was complete, the pentagon and its contents disappeared.

She then took a look at what was going on and got a good view of the surrounding terrain. There were another seven crevices surrounding the room in which she could hide. She would just have to get there without anyone noticing. _There!_ She quickly took the opening that was given and dashed to another, smaller rock a little farther away. Luckily, everyone was too busy to notice her. She quickly drew another pentagon on the new rock. Within this one, however, she drew the image of a turtle.

She again found openings to take her the full way around the room. She left marks on wherever she could find that surrounded the large boulder in the center of the cavern. Within the last three pentagons she drew three wisps that ended in spirals, a mountain and a star.

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"Fai, do you know what she's doing?" Syaoran asked. Fai just shook his head and continued to look. His face was set in concentration. He knew those people from somewhere, but where? He continued to look on as things progressed with Syaoran and the others beside him.

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Emiri was just about to find a safer hiding place than the meagre little pile of stones she was behind when something caught her attention in the corner of her eye. The flick of her eyes towards what made the movement was her downfall for as soon as her eyes inched towards it, something grabbed her from behind.

She gasped out loud and dropped her staff, grabbing the attention of the people in cloaks as well as the reddish haired man. The nymph that caught her dragged her out into the open and to the people who circled around her to prevent escape. Another held her fallen staff. She was too surprised to counter attack and could only feebly resist when they tied her hands together at her back and forced her to the ground on her knees. _I'm so stupid,_ she moaned to herself.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" the leader spoke as he entered the circle. The man's chest plate gleamed in the fire light and his voice sent chills down Emiri's back, which she suppressed with much difficulty. She would not show weakness to this monster.

"I should be asking you that!" Emiri said in disgust. "You're seriously going to try and resurrect **that thing!** I didn't think you were so weak that you had to rely on some demons strength for you to win wars, or is this just so that you can gain status with your superiors. Had enough of doing their dirty work? Have you had enough of being someone who could be thrown away at any time?" she mocked. The man's pointy face darkened.

"It would be wise for you to shut your mouth," the man said with a deep voice lased with threats that she knew he could carry out.

"Oh, I'm sorry, did I hit a nerve," Emiri said scathingly. "What's wrong Dethar, still didn't get that raise you wanted. Maybe they just think you're too stupid to get it, wasn't it you that let all those prisoners escape?" Emiri said with a smile on her face. Dethar bared his teeth in anger, his larger than average canines coming over his bottom lip.

"SHUT UP WENCH!" he yelled coming towards her and striking her on the cheek. The attack left a large gash on her cheek; she only then noticed the sharp pointed knuckles of the leather and metal hand covering he wore. She swore softly as she was thrown to the ground by the force of the attack. Dethar climbed on top of her and held her upper body up by taking hold of the cloak around her neck. He chuckled.

"I don't think you understand the situation you're in right now," he said mockingly sweet. He closed the gap between their faces and put his mouth close to her ear. "You may have gotten away last time, but don't think it will happen again. Don't think I haven't forgotten that it was **you **that let all of them escape; leaving me to take the blame. You've come here to stop me!? Just try it, there's no way you could do it by yourself. So, tell me," he paused and with a freakishly large smile, pointed canine teeth gleaming and eyes, eccentrically wild, "where are your friends?" He took his mouth away from her ear and looked into her eyes. Emiri's eyes slowly grew larger as if she were facing a demon. _Then again, _she thought, _I am._

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_They're from that vision! _Fai's eyes widened in realization, but the others didn't notice, they were too intent on seeing what was going on. _Why are they here? It was only a vision. _Fai heard Sakura gasp and turned to look at her. She was watching the scene from below them with wide eyes. Syaoran and Kurogane were tense; both of them gripping their swords. As he looked down, he could see Emiri being dragged out of her hiding place and placed in the center of a circle of those strange people in cloaks. They made way for the larger person from before so he could get in. He watched as Emiri didn't put up any resistance at all and was puzzled by it.

He heard Kurogane lightly swear under his breath and a light smile graced his face. _Well, at least he doesn't completely hate her._

"SHUT UP WENCH!" The smile disappeared off his face by the sound of a man's voice, the one that was talking to Emiri. His form tensed as the man moved towards Emiri and hit her face with the back of his hand. A resounding smack was heard throughout the cavern. Syaoran was about to jump down but Kurogane held him fast. Syaoran gave him an incredulous look but Kruogane just shook his head.

_We still don't know what's happening. Whatever Emiri was doing before, we might ruin it if we go down there now. _Fai thought and as much as he hated the idea of letting her go through that, there wasn't much of a choice. They weren't of this world. Fai's frown deepened as the man leaned in closer to Emiri and placed his mouth close to her ear. Fai's fist unconsciously clenched. It was only when his hand started to cramp that he realized he had a death grip on a stone he had picked up.

It was too late to do anything but put up a small struggle as hands with pointed claws grabbed him. Instead of even doing that, Fai let a large smile appear on his face and took it in stride. Kurogane and Syaoran however instantly drew their swords and slashed at the hands that grabbed for them.

Syaoran thrust his sword through the stomach of the nymph that grabbed him and quickly made a run for Sakura and Mokona who were being held by another one. He kicked the nymph on the side of the stomach making it fly off the ledge and land with a sickening thud on the floor. He stayed in front of Sakura and Mokona with his sword and guard up.

Kurogane had, by this time, already taken out three of them and was just about to kill the fourth when he heard Emiri.

"DON'T FIGHT! JUST LET THEM TAKE YOU," she yelled out from her kneeling position with the man still hovering over her. Syaoran and Kurogane looked at each other in confusion.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU MEAN 'LET THEM TAKE YOU,' ARE YOU NUTS!" Kurogane shouted back to her while thrusting his sword into the shoulder of another nymph.

"JUST DO AS I SAY," she nearly pleaded. Kurogane and Syaoran heard the plea in her voice and hesitantly surrendered. There swords were taken from them.

As they were led down to the bottom level of the cavern Fai saw Emiri being patted on the head by the larger man who was smiling. Emiri recoiled in disgust. Fai's eyebrows lowered but the smile was still on his face.

"Tie them up and keep them against one of the walls 'till later," the man said when they reached him. "Put the white thing in one of the cages," he added as an afterthought. It looked like Syaoran and Kurogane were about to start fighting again, but were stopped by a look and a slight shake of the head by Emiri.

The group was placed against the wall as was ordered while Mokona was forcefully shoved into a small cage and hung above their heads and a little to the right. There swords were being inspected and played with by the nymphs who had taken them. Kurogane frowned.

"Why didn't you let us fight?" Kurogane, who was kneeling to Emiri's left, said.

"You would have just been wasting your energy if you did. If you haven't figured it out by now, we're outnumbered, especially since the nymphs seem to be under their control. Also, those people aren't normal. They're from an ancient sect called Trevist whose main goal is to find some hidden treasure. I didn't even think they still existed. They might be summoning something to help them find it, or it might just be to cause havoc. But then why is Dethar with them? Damn it, this world doesn't need anymore demons in it!" Emiri said starting to get more annoyed than angry. To make it worse, the gash on her face was dripping blood onto her cloak. _That'll be hard to clean,_ she thought.

"So what do we do now?" Syaoran asked from behind Emiri. "How are we supposed to stop this when we can barely move?"

"Well, I didn't count on us getting caught," she admitted. "The only thing I can do is stop whatever it is they're going to summon, after that, I have no idea what we're going to do." Emiri longingly looked towards her staff which was a little ways off to the side where the nymph had carelessly dropped it. It was near Sakura who was beside Kurogane.

"Hey, Sakura, try getting a hold of my staff, make sure they don't see you." She received a nod in reply and turned her head towards what was happening in the middle of the cavern.

They were starting.

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A/N

Hello again! I was in a really good writing mood this week so here's the next chapter! I wanted to make it longer but I thought it would be a bit too long if I continued. That, and I still want to think a little more on what will happen. Well you guys know there's going to be some kind of summoning, I would love to here your ideas on how you think it should look. I want to make it based on fire so if any of you have some ideas I would absolutely LOVE to here them. Also please give me some constructive critism! I want to make this story enjoyable for everyone that reads it so please tell me truthfully what you think and if you think it's bad, please tell me why! Thank you to all of the reviewers for the last chapter and I hope you liked this one!


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles, but next anime convention I will be getting a Fai plushy!

**Tainted Memories**

Chapter 13:

"Stal sem dreg der sem oria kiie monareth tuei na tal kiia spek gra na bea, larmen daiemon der sem drega."

The entire cavern was silent except for the monotonous, resounding chants of the Trevists.

"Oi, what are they doing?" Kurogane asked in a hushed voice.

"Starting," was Emiri's curt reply. Her teeth were tightly clenched and her hands were in tight fists. That cut was definitely starting to annoy her. Sakura was slowly and cautiously moving her leg to try and reach the staff. The only source of light in the cavern were a few torches in random places around the room, the rest had been blown out when the chanting started.

Two semi-human beings came out of a side passageway on the other side of the room. They had dark blue tails and long horns that curled around their faces while their hooves were shoeless. They held long sticks with fire burning at the ends of them but not touching the wood. When they got closer to the center of the room, they touched the fire to the ground and made a circle surrounding the center arena. Chants were spoken throughout the entire drawing process. Once the main circle was done, the two semi-humans continued to create more intricate designs within the main circle.

"Stal sem dreg der sem oria kiie monareth tuei na tal kiia spek gra nab ea, larmen daiemon der sem drega," the people in cloaks continued to chant as the two torch wielders finished there job and walked to a side of the room to watch. Emiri started struggling against her bonds as a tense atmosphere was cast throughout the room. The circle on the floor started glowing red and, with it, the flames along the walls flickered before being blown out by a sudden cold wind.

Sakura had now almost reached the staff with her foot, and was just about to grab it when a nymph looked their way. Emiri quickly covered for her by pretending to throw a tantrum and kicking dust into the nymphs face, allowing Sakura time to retract her legs.

"DAMN IT DETHAR! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING! YOU HAVE TO STOP NOW BEFORE SOMETHING TERRIBLE HAPPENS. ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME? YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO CONTROL IT!" she screamed while struggling against her bonds more forcefully than before. This earned her a hard slap in her face by the nymph, but kept Sakura from being caught.

"You okay?" Fai asked from beside her.

"Yeah," Emiri said. " It just **had **to be the same cheek," she sighed exasperatedly. "Keep trying Sakura."

Sakura nodded in reply and continued, albeit a little more cautiously, looking over her shoulder more frequently. The room seemed to grow darker as the inscription's red light brightened. Kurogane's eyes narrowed into slits as his instincts told him even more trouble was on the way and tried to make out whatever it was that was coming out from the inscriptions.

"Is that what they're summoning?" he asked, his eyes still focused ahead. From the red inscriptions shadows, darker than the darkness surrounding them, snaked their way up.

When looking closer, the group could see that the shadows took the form of hands.

"No," Emiri said. Her eyes were wide and it had been a while since she had blinked. "Those are merely part of the spell, nothing more. They will bring the beast into this world." She looked to Sakura and saw that she was now slowly inching the staff towards her. It was near enough to grab with her hands if they weren't stuck close to her body by the ropes. She looked back to see a swirling worm-hole in the center of the circle. It was completely black except for what looked like fire. This fire's light, however, could not reach into the blackness and so was only on the top of the hole. Emiri's eyes narrowed_, we don't have much time. _Just as she thought this however, she felt something touch her hand, looking back she found that it was her staff and a smile made its way onto her face.

"Yes! Great job Sakura," she complimented before the smile was wiped off as she turned to see how far the summoning had come.

Dethar was now in his own little world of fantasy, _no doubt thinking of ways to torture some poor victim, unfortunately, most likely us. _It seemed that he had become oblivious to what was happening in front of him which suited Emiri just fine. Hundreds of hands had now formed and were slowing dipping themselves into the worm-hole.

"Listen, can you hold them off until I finish?" She asked her companions as she released them from their bonds. None of them however moved their hands apart for fear of the enemy seeing.

"How long?" was Syaoran's reply.

"One minute should be enough if I'm not interrupted. There'll be a lot of them but if you think you can't then I can use another protection spell but it would take around five minutes to stop the summoning." As if the mere thought of him, Kurogane, **not** being able to fight off however many enemies came in his way was the deepest of insults, he growled and looked towards the nymph with his sword.

"I'll take that as a yes?" Emiri asked. Both Syaoran and Fai agreed to help. Now Emiri was just waiting for the right moment.

"Stay close to me once I get my sword," Syaoran whispered to Sakura who nodded in the affirmative. The black hands had by now, started pulling something up out of the worm-hole and seemed to be straining themselves to do it. Soon they were able to see traces of blue fire dispersed throughout the red. It soon started to take the shape of a dome. They could feel the pure heat from the red flames but the coldness of the blue fire seemed to burn their skin more fiercely.

As the dome slowly rose with the help of the shadows, the travelers could see it becoming the skull of a giant canine. Its eyes, or lack thereof, still seemed to possess sight with a harsh, single, red flame as its pupil engulfed in chilling blue fire; as was the rest of the skull. The monstrous fangs snapped at the ones performing the summoning but never seemed to reach them completely. Its howls and snarls echoed throughout the cavern making everyone cringe. This didn't seem to have any effect on Dethar however who was still standing, with a winning smirk on his face, off to the side.

Soon, the monster lifted its skeletal, human, hand out of the pit which came crashing down to send a large shockwave throughout the cavern. Debris fell down from the ceiling, the sound of their clanking drowned out by the grumbling and moaning of the cave walls from the shock of the impact to its floor.

"Get ready, it's almost done," Emiri said. It was only by the slight difference in stance of the group that told Emiri they had heard her. Their wide eyes were still focused on the beast in front of them, whether from fear or awe. Kurogane tensed up and seemed to be ready to fight the second the right time came. Fai, for the most part seemed pretty relaxed with a small smile on his face; the shock from seeing the monster already having gone.

Sakura had a very worried look on her face as she looked from Syaoran's grim and defiant face to the rest. Mokona was still in his small cage, sitting and looking on, no doubt wishing there was a way out for him so that he could help too. Emiri's thoughts were interrupted by the cavern floor groaning once again from the intense weight of the demon. The rest of the body was coming into view.

"When its feet are about to come up, that's when we have to act. They will be unable to stop the summoning then and by the time the beast is fully out, the spell will be ready and you guys will have less to worry about with the mages already drained."

As Emiri had just said, the body of the beast was taking shape. Its skeletal body was much the same as its head, completely bone with chilling blue fire emanating from each joint. Little green and black demons were crawling about along the bones like spiders.

Their cackling was heard over the roar of the beast. They had a total of six legs, four on one side and two on the other, a long, cylindrical body with a spherical face that had one horn on their chin. Their mouths were lined with jagged, pointed, teeth sticking out at all angles. There was no evidence of eyes, ears or any other facial features.

The tails of the monster were also taking shape. Instead of bone, however, the two tails were made of the same blue fire that consumed the rest of its body. The fire took the shape of two long chains that were able to expand, as seen by the way it tried to attack the summoners again. All the while, the dark hands were pulling them out of the hole which had, by now, become smaller with the largest part of the beast out.

"Get ready," Emiri warned as the group tensed and her grip tightened on the staff. The bottom most portion of the monster was slowing making its way into their world. There was a loud explosion on the other side of the cavern making large rocks and debris fall among the onlookers. Syaoran and Kurogane immediately sprinted to their swords, only a few meters away and made a quick job of getting them back and immobilizing the nymphs. Emiri had stood up and was mumbling a chant under her breath while Fai was busy taking out a few of the creatures that were quick to respond to the surprise. Sakura busied herself with trying to free Mokona.

As expected, the mages were still too busy with their summoning and were not able to help. All others, however, were making their way over to the escapees and were shortly taken care of by one of the guys.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING? GET THEM!" screamed Dethar who had finally come out of his daydreaming. Unsheathing his sword, he made his way over to them, eyes set on Emiri. Kurogane noticed this, however, and with a wicked gleam in his eyes made his way towards him to head him off.

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Everything was quiet except for the roaring of the beast and her own chanting. She could feel the seals she had planted waking. Each symbol glowed in its own different light which she was able to see in her minds eye. They started out as mere blobs of light, but in a few seconds, the individual shapes of the seals could be seen.

In her mind she formed a picture of a pentagon and with it surrounded the demon. The sounds of fighting entered her mind but she quickly cast them away and emptied her mind once again to focus on the task at hand.

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Metal clashed on metal as Kurogane and Dethar battled. _This guy's pretty good,_ Kurogane thought as a smile creped onto his face. However the same smile appeared on Dethar's face, only getting Kurogane more excited. _Heh, so he thinks he can defeat me huh?_ Kurogane thought as his muscled tightened; putting more force into his attacks.

Kurogane brought his sword above his head and crashed it down on Dethar who blocked it with his own sword. Kurogane then came in from the right. This time, Dethar dodged and sent his own wave of attacks on Kurogane who seemed to have a hard time blocking them. The smile on his face had vanished, instead becoming a frown as he concentrated on gaining the upper hand.

Kurogane moved to Dethar's left and pulled his blade back to stab him in the stomach where there was a small weakness in his armour. Kurogane plunged his sword forward only to hit air. A surprised look over came his face but was instantly gone having felt a presence behind him. He moved away just in time to avoid a fatal blow to his neck and settled for a fairly deep cut on his cheek. He managed to pull his sword up in time to avoid another assault by Dethar to his middle and blocked, sending another wave of attacks back at him.

A glowing from around the cave caught his attention and almost made him lose focus. He only barely saved himself from another fatal wound.

"Hey, mage, what's she doing?" Kurogane asked Fai who was blocking off the nymph's attacks on Emiri and Sakura, who had Mokona in her arms, with the help of Syaoran.

"I don't know but I think she's almost done," Fai replied after sending a kick to one of the nymphs, sending it flying into the wall and rendering him unconscious. _I see, so that's what those things were for,_ he thought as he saw a pentagon form around the monster. Kurogane's eyes narrowed in suspicion that Fai was hiding something from them. These thoughts were quickly lost as all of his attention transferred to the warrior before him.

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_Okay, first part done, _Emiri thought, taking a deep breath _now onto the next. _She opened her eyes to the mayhem all around her. She saw it, but it didn't seem to register in her mind what exactly was going on. She could see Kurogane fighting Dethar, and had a slightly painful regret that she wasn't the one doing it. She could see Fai and Syaoran defending Sakura and herself; it was something like watching it from outside her body while also in her normal perspective.

Pushing the thoughts back and once again emptying her mind, she raised her staff, pointed it at the pentagon and spoke out **ceros**. The pentagon on the floor now appeared on all sides of the monster, flickering into existence, all exact replicas of the first. The seals tightened as much as they could into a circular form to trap the being with as little space as possible. The monster was now fully out of the hole and the mages with some strength left were already moving to help fight.

The beast's roars shook the walls and ground, unbalancing everyone and disrupting the fighting for a few seconds. Emiri moved her staff in a circular motion before roughly thrusting it in the direction of the ensnared monster. It cried out in either pain or fury as its body became nothing more than a small sphere of darkness while the seals shrunk to continue controlling it. A small opening in the seals was created allowing a small stream of the monsters, now vaporous, body to escape and move straight into the orb at the top of Emiri's staff.

Once the entirety of the monster was captured, a minor shock wave of energy made Emiri take a step back to balance herself. Looking around for the first time in what seemed like hours, she saw the mages in the middle of casting spells and the rest of the group, unlucky enough to get involved in her life, fighting for their lives.

"COME ON, LET'S GO!" Emiri shouted over the deafening noise. Fai, Syaoran and Sakura (still holding Mokona) were quick to follow Emiri as she ran towards where the semi-humans had come from.

One of the mages had seen their attempted escape and sent a blast of fire their way. Emiri quickly flourished her staff and produced a shield of water to counter the attack.

"Where's Kurogane?" Sakura worriedly asked looking around the room.

"What?" Emiri breathlessly asked.

"Ah, looks like Kuro-puu is having fun," Fai exclaimed with a large smile. Emiri sent him a "what the hell are you talking about" look. As soon as she saw what was happening both of her hands came up to smack her forehead. Kurogane continued to fight while the rest of them were waiting to escape. The problem was that he wasn't fighting anything.

Emiri looked back and forth between the escape path and Kurogane, debating whether to just leave the idiot there. _Why me?_ She groaned in her mind as she wove her staff in front of her creating another, clear, shield.

"Stay here," she commanded as she ran out of the barrier and to Kurogane.

"What's wrong, can't keep up?" Kurogane asked Dethar as, once again, they were in a face off, both swords clashed with each other and both warriors doing there best to over power the other.

"Ha! As if those weak attacks could ever defeat me! Looks as if you're already getting tired," Dethar teased back. "You know, you're actually pretty good for a trainee, _Kuro-puu_," Dethar said with a laugh. The use of Fai's nickname for him caught him off guard and broke the stale mate they were in. Kurogane quickly regained his composure and let go another wave of attacks even more powerful than before. He was pushing Dethar back against the wall. Dethar continued to smile as if there was nothing wrong which only angered Kurogane further. As Kurogane was about to finish the battle with a killing blow, a hand snaked around his arm and stopped him before he could end it.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Kurogane said to Emiri through gritted teeth.

"Saving you, now come on!" She replied back frustrated.

"I don't need saving, especially from you," Kurogane said moving his face closer to hers.

"Yeah, okay fine, whatever, it doesn't matter, but we have to go now," she said, giving up the fight right away.

"I'm just about to kill him," Kurogane said wrenching away his arm from Emiri's grasp.

"Oh really?" Emiri said, pausing to shield them from another magical attack while sending off lightning bolts to hit them back, effectively stunning them. "Kill who? The wall?" she continued. A strange look came over his face as he looked back to where Dethar should have been only to see nothing. His thoughts were disrupted however by Emiri again taking hold of his arm and leading to the rest of the group waiting at the mouth of the exit. "You were fighting an illusion created by Dethar. He had left right after the summons had been captured."

"What!" Kurogane yelled in rage at being made a fool. Instead of getting further agitated, he spent his time getting towards the exit. Someone was going to pay later.

Emiri only let go of Kurogane's arm when they were back with the rest of the group and on their way out. Syaoran took hold of Sakura's hand so they wouldn't get separated. Emiri lead them through a maze of passageways, sometimes having to stop and fight a few nymphs who weren't present at the summoning.

"Where are we going?" Syaoran asked Emiri.

"I've no idea, hopefully out."

"What do you mean you don't know?" Kurogane nearly yelled still frustrated from his earlier, non-existent fight. Emiri didn't answer however and instead kept running.

"Over there!" Sakura said pointing to a side passage in the wall. "I can feel wind and there's a little bit of light."

"Yes! Good job Sakura!" Emiri cheered as she ran back towards the passage Sakura pointed out. At the prospect of freedom from the dark passageways, they all increased there speed. They finally broke out into daylight onto a fairly large ledge near the midpoint of a mountain.

"When did we go up?" Syaoran asked confusedly.

"Who cares, we're out! And we survived!" Emiri yelled for joy as she jumped up and down."

"You mean you didn't even know if we were going to live!" Kurogane said as he put a hand on her head and made her turn to look at him. A sweat drop appeared on her forehead.

"Umm, well," Emiri mumbling looking uncomfortable. She was unable to finish however as a light dust covered them and made their eyes droopy.

"Syaoran?" Sakura sleepily said. No answer came as Syaoran had already collapsed with the rest of them soon to follow.

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For those who'd like a translation of the chant in the beginning here it is! - _from the depths of the earth we summon thee to heed our words and to obey, great demon of the deep._

I actually got this word from half of it's Latin counterpart meaning "twin." It's pronouced with a soft "c" so it sounds like **seros**.

A/N:

Okay first off I am **extremely** sorry for the long wait! I unfortunately found it really hard coming up with that monster because everytime I thought about it I'd always picture that demon from Lord of the Rings that fought Gandalf! So annoying but I finally got past that and here it is! I hope it was okay, did I put too much detail into it and not enough action? The fighting scenes, I know are crappy, this was my first time so I hope it wasn't a complete waste. Well tell me what you think and please review! Also thanks to all of you who reviewed last chapter and throughout the whole story, they really do inspire me! As I'm sure they do all authors!

Also, for those who only watch the anime and don't read the manga, unless you want to be seriously depressed **do not read it!** Because I swear I was literally out of it for about 4 days after that incident with Fai.

**BTW: If you have time, you have to read this manga called SKIP BEAT! It really is an awome, funny and serious story so if you have time try finding it. I'll put the site on my profile if you want to check it out!**

Anyway, thanks again for the support in previous chapters, I hope you enjoyed this one and please review!


	14. Chapter 14

Diclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Tsubasa Chornicles or the little tree spirits I took from Princess Mononoke! Don't sue me please.

**Tainted Memories**

Chapter 14:

_It was dark. No, it was really dark. Emiri could feel herself becoming more aware of her surroundings and slowly, some light passed through her eyelids. __Who the hell is clicking their tongue? Uhg,_ she thought. The insistent clicking was starting to grate on her nerves. It wasn't just a few of them; there were hundreds of them coming from every direction. Her brows furrowed slightly as she fought with her eyes to open. She had to blink a few times to adjust to the light. _What the …_

Little white creatures were scattered all around her. It was impossible to tell gender if there were any. They wore no clothing and seemed to be identical to each other except for their heads. Some had very skinny heads; others had circular ones while others had squares, ovals, triangles and all types of assortments. After watching them for a few seconds, Emiri discerned where the annoying clicking was coming from. The heads of the creatures kept turning 90° and then moved back into place in short jerks. With every jerk came a click and with so many, it was no wonder the noise was somewhat deafening.

Looking around she saw her companions sitting beside her. They were all tied to a large wooden pole in the middle of what looked like the creatures' camp. Something must have been wrong with her head because she could not process anything at the moment except that they were in a foreign camp, and someone was yelling.

"GET THE HELL OFF ME YOU RUNTS! HEY DON'T STICK YOUR FINGER THERE!"

"Puuu, they like you!!"

"HEY WHY THE HELL AREN'T YOU TIED UP! I SAID STOP!"

Emiri looked to where the shouting was coming from and before she could stop herself burst out laughing.

"What, hahahahaha, happened to, hahahaha, you!" Emiri managed to say while laughing. Her ribs were starting to hurt.

"OI, MAGE DO SOMETHING!" Kurogane yelled. Emiri didn't answer, she was still laughing too hard and with all clicking it was getting hard to hear him.

Kurogane was covered in the little white creatures. They were crawling over his legs, sleeping in his hair, poking his arms and a curious starfish-headed one was trying to shove its fingers up his mouth and nose.

"Wow, Kuro-wan, they really seem to like you!" Fai commented in a happy tone. From it, you wouldn't have been able to tell they were currently hostages.

"Yeah, you have a wonderful affinity for small white creatures," Emiri said before breaking down into another fit of giggles. Syaoran was the one to bring her back to reality.

"What are these things?" he asked.

"Hmm, I'm not sure," she said chuckling. She bent down to get a better look at one circle-head. She couldn't move very far because her arms were tied to the pole, however she was able to bend to, at least, eye level. It obviously didn't appreciate being scrutinized and threw some kind of dust at her face making her cough and sit up.

"Are they dangerous?" Sakura asked.

"I … don't …" Emiri tried to say as her eyes got weaker. She wasn't able to finish her sentence before she fell asleep.

"Emiri!" Sakura cried out worriedly.

"Don't worry, she's just asleep," Fai said scrutinizing her to make sure she was breathing.

"That dust is probably what put us to sleep in the first place."

"Well that's a great help," Kurogane said sarcastically. "Hey manju, get us the hell out of here." Unfortunately for him, Mokona was currently sitting with the white creatures accepting a bowl of stew. "OI! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" he continued.

"What's with all the yelling?" a distant voice said. All heads turned to see a person walking up a hill towards them. His short black hair blew in the gentle breeze and his piercing green eyes could be seen clearly, despite the distance. He looked to be around twenty years old and was wearing loose dark brown pants that had pale green buttons along the sides. He wore a dark green, long sleeved, shirt that slid into the same brown as his pants and wore a short necklace with two blue beads surrounding a white one. "And who might you be?" he questioned as he saw them.

The white creatures started to run towards him as soon as they saw him to Kurogane's delight.

"What have you guys found?" he asked one of them that had climbed onto his head.

"Hmm, I didn't think there were any more of you guys, so why is there a new one here," he said looking at Mokona.

"Mokona's different and not one of the forest spirits." He said.

"You can speak to them?" Kurogane grit out looking as though he wanted to kill the white manju.

"It's one of Mokona's 108 secret skills!" he claimed excitedly.

"Alright, alright, so how did you guys make it all the way out here?" the stranger asked.

"Ah," Syaoran started, "we found our way out of the mountain when we fell asleep because of some dust. When we woke up we were here." He said lamely. The person laughed and started to untie them.

"I'm sorry these guys caused you trouble. They don't really trust any human except me. I'm Miron, by the way and it looks like you've stumbled onto my territory." He said. "Wow, you guys did a great job with these knots," he commented to the creatures. While Miron was working, Syaoran introduced everyone.

"Emiri?" Miron said. He froze in his work at the mention of her name. Kurogane's eyes narrowed sensing danger. Miron lifted his head and walked around to the sleeping Emiri and knelt in front of her staring intently into her face. The group tensed as Miron quickly took a knife from one of his pockets and instead of fiddling with the ropes like before, cut through them. He made a stabbing motion towards Emiri but before he could do anything Fai grabbed her and hoisted her into his arms. Missing his target he charged towards Fai but was stopped by a sword at his throat before he could get close. Kurogane stood between him and his targets.

"Oi, what do you think you're doing?" Kurogane spoke dangerously.

"Pfft, you're actually protecting her? She needs to be taught a lesson so get out of my way," Miron said. The forest spirits started to get restless and tried to pull back the two fighters. Even together they were not strong enough to move the two humans away. After a short glaring contest between the two fighters, Miron finally made a move to put his knife away. "Alright, I get it. You won't let me hurt her, just put the sword away and follow me," he said while turning his back to the group and walking away.

"Why the hell should we follow you?" Kurogane demanded.

"Kurogane, I don't think he means to kill," Syaoran said walking up to him. "I know he tried to attack Emiri, but I didn't sense any killing intent. Besides it's starting to get dark and we need to find somewhere to stay," he continued.

"There is no way we're staying with that guy," Kurogane said.

"That's probably for the best," Fai added.

"Hey are you guys coming or what?" Miron shouted. "Just hurry up it's getting dark and we don't want to be stuck in the forest after sunset. I promise I won't go near you guys."

After a quick whispered discussion and a yawn from Sakura and Mokona, the group decided to follow the stranger, albeit a few meters behind.

"Where are we going?" Syaoran called to Miron.

"To my village, it's in the middle of the forest and protected by a strong barrier to keep the demons out." He called back. There was a hint of amusement in his voice and eyes as he looked back at them.

"Why did you try and attack Emiri?" Fai asked. Miron completely stopped and turned around to face the group.

"How did you meet that girl?" he asked.

"Answer our question first," Kurogane replied. Miron sighed.

"Listen, a word of advice, once we get to my village it'd be best if you just left her there and went your own ways. She's very dangerous to be around so if you value your lives get away from her as soon as you can," he warned. Fai absentmindedly glanced at the girl in his arms. He was having trouble believing that the face he was looking at could be that dangerous. The way Miron described her was like she herself was a type of demon. However he shook the thought out of his head, _it could be true,_ he thought._ Just look at me._

"What are you talking about?" Kurogane growled. Miron was cut off from answering by a sharp howling that almost sounded like hundreds of people screaming.

"What was that?" Sakura asked fearfully. Mokona slid further into her arms and the rest of the group looked around them for any sign of danger.

"We'd better finish this discussion once we reach the village," Miron said as he quickened his pace, as did the others.

"What was that?" Syaoran repeated Sakura's question.

"If we don't hurry we're going to find out. My guess is emberins," he said breathing slightly harder.

"Emberins?" Fai asked.

"Keep running I'll explain later," Miron said as he increased his pace. They had luckily reached the village in only another ten minutes. They came up to large wooden doors that seemed to be the entrance of the town. A small stone path had led up to the town which was circled by logs the same height as the door.

"Open up, it's me," Miron said loudly. A watchman at the top looked down to them at Miron's call.

"Who do you bring with you? It is folly for strangers not of this land to be in these woods," the guard said eyeing the groups clothing.

"They are with me and no threat. I heard many emberins earlier and I doubt they didn't know we were there. I would open the doors quickly before they catch up," Miron said a little more commanding.

"Ah yes, we heard them as well. But then there's still _her_ to deal with. You don't expect her to take shelter here do you? She will bring misfortune upon all of us," the guard responded. Miron sighed loudly in frustration.

"Okay listen. I do not have to explain everything that I do to you. I suggest you open the doors now before I knock them down forcefully--don't give me that look, you know I can—then you won't have much defence against the forest," he threatened. The guard once again looked upon the strange group. Syaoran Fai and Kurogane listened to the argument carefully, now weary about the girl still is Fai's arms. Mokona and Sakura looked to the ground trying to ignore the argument. Soon enough, the gates opened for the group and they walked into the village.

The sun was now below the horizon and only the faint glow of twilight remained along with the lanterns among the small town. Even though it was nearing dark, the villagers were still up and lively chattering with neighbours or looking at merchandise. The group followed Miron through the village. He seemed to be popular as almost everyone they passed greeted him warmly. Emiri, in contrast, got many stares, some of them hostile. Kurogane slowed down and set his pace to Fai's.

"The mage doesn't seem to be very popular. She's hiding something," he said.

"We all have secrets," Fai responded nonchalantly. Kurogane narrowed his eyes.

"You would know all about that, wouldn't you?" Kurogane said. Fai's eyes darkened and the air became thick with tension but he didn't respond. The silence between the two was broken when Miron spoke.

"Alright this is my house. You may stay here with me," he said. At Kurogane's intense look he continued, "or there is an inn just down the street that you can go to. Of course, you'll have to pay." The group looked at each other but before they could say anything Emiri woke.

"Uhg, where are we?" she said groggily. A questioning look came to her face when she realized Fai was staring down at her. She looked around in confusion and signalled for Fai to let her down. Miron had become very quiet during this time and seemed to be very stiff. Emiri also became stiff as she realized where she was.

"Nice of you to join us," Miron said. Emiri whipped around and her eyes widened. "Ah, I see you remember me."

"Oh oh." Emiri said starting to back away.

"You've been skipping out on your training." Miron stated. The group looked on in silence as they conversed.

"What makes you say that?" Emiri said still backing away. Faster than she could see, Miron was right behind her pinning her arms together. Both Kurogane and Fai made a move to get Emiri away but were quickly stopped by her voice. By this time, many of the towns people were watching, some looking on in amusement, other looking as if she was getting what she deserved.

"Wait what's going on?" Syaoran asked unconsciously placing Sakura behind him.

"Don't worry, its fine," Emiri said struggling to break free.

"Alright, now that I have you, you are coming inside with me." Miron sated while literally shoving her to his door. "You guys should come in too," he said watching them.

The group was concerned for Emiri but could see that she didn't want them to interfere.

The villagers slowly left as Emiri was pulled into the house and the hesitant group soon followed. Miron shoved Emiri into a chair rather roughly and went into another room.

"I think it's time you explained a few things." Kurogane said. "Who is he?"

"Miron," Emiri curtly replied with a little scorn in her voice.

"We know that, what does he want from you?" Kurogane forcefully asked.

Syaoran, Sakura, Fai and Mokona took a seat on one of the couches and looked on in amusement. Emiri had gotten over her original shock and didn't seem to mind Miron too much so they figured he wasn't too much of a threat and as Fai had stated just loud enough for Kurogane to hear, "We have Kuro-daddy to help if we need it!" earning a vain to pop up in Kurogane's head.

"No idea," Emiri said in response to Kurogane's question, not hearing what Fai had just said. Just when Kurogane was about to speak again, Miron came back.

"Here it is," he said triumphantly as he came into the room holding onto a bunch of plastic cables with needles coming out on one end; the other ends were attached to a black square box. Emiri stiffened at the site of the contraption and a slight hint of fear was wafting off of her.

"No." she stated calmly, though they could easily see the unease in her posture.

"Emiri," Miron said warningly.

"There is no way you are putting that anywhere near me," she said, still deathly calm. The group still looked on and didn't know whether they should interfere or not.

"We'll see about that."

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A/N

And so ends the long process of editing EVERYTHING. The document manager was giving me A LOT of trouble uploading all of these. It would underline everything and italisize everything so I had to go back and make sure that all of the thoughts were italisized. But I finally got it done. I want to send out a really large apology to everyone who's reading this. I know it's been a while. I've actually hit some writers block on this and now with University starting again, I so tired from studying that I don't have much will to write. However, I WILL finish this story, just please be patient. Thank you again for everyone that's stuck with this story throughout the months it hasn't been updated. I'll keep working on it when I can.


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